FIORENTINA’S MATCH AT Atalanta on Sunday was briefly halted in the first half due to racist abuse directed toward defender Dalbert.
With just over a half hour gone in the Serie A game at Stadio Ennio Tardini, referee Daniele Orsato signalled for the game to be stopped after Dalbert indicated he’d heard the abuse.
The game was brought to a halt as an announcement was read over the stadium loudspeaker imploring fans to halt the abuse.
The statement was drowned out by boos and whistles from the Atalanta supporters.
After a brief pause the game was resumed, with Fiorentina leading 1-0 after a goal from Federico Chiesa.
The incident on Sunday was yet another blight on Italian football, with the racist behaviour of some fans under the spotlight in the early season.
Inter forward Romelu Lukaku was also the subject of racist abuse in a game at Cagliari earlier this month.
As Lukaku stepped up to take a penalty, Cagliari supporters directed monkey chants toward the striker.
Despite the audible chants, Serie A ruled earlier this week that Cagliari would not be punished for the incident.
In announcing their decision, Serie A stated the chants could not be proven to be discriminatory due to the amount of other noise coming from the stands.
Last weekend, AC Milan midfielder Franck Kessie was subjected to racist chants from Hellas Verona fans, another incident in a discouraging start to the season in Italy.
After the game, Hellas Verona issued a defiant statement on Twitter insisting that their fans had not racially abused Kessie.
“Racist chants against Kessie? Insults against [Gianluigi] Donnarumma? Maybe someone was baffled by the decibel of the Gialloblu supporters,” the club tweeted.
[We heard] unavoidable whistles against the referee’s decisions which still leave us very perplexed today.
“And then, lots of cheers for our gladiators at the end of the match. Let’s not stumble on clichés and old labels. Respect for Verona and its people.”
On Saturday, AC Milan announced prior to the derby against Inter that they would be launching an anti-racism task force to tackle discrimination in Italian football.
The Milan derby, which Inter won 2-0 in part thanks to a goal from Lukaku, was rebranded the “Derby Against Racism.”
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