Maignan and Milan show statements and protocols will not end racism

Photograph: Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images

Saturday was far from the first time that Mike Maignan suffered racist abuse inside a Serie A stadium. He had barely joined Milan when he heard supporters targeting him during a match away to Juventus in September 2021. After the match he posted a statement in three different languages on his social media account, questioning whether enough was being done to prevent such incidents from recurring.

“Do the people who take decisions know what it feels to hear insults that portray us as animals?” he wrote at the time. “Do they know what it does to our family, to our relatives who just can’t understand why these things keep happening in 2021?”

Three years later, they are still happening. At Udinese’s Stadio Friuli, Maignan refused to tolerate it. He had heard racist chants and insults directed at him when he went to retrieve the ball for his very first goal-kick. When it happened again at the second, he informed the referee Fabio Maresca as well as Milan’s coaching staff. Announcements were made on the stadium PA warning that discrimination would not be tolerated.

They were not effective. Milan took the lead in the 31st minute, Ruben Loftus-Cheek converting a cross from Théo Hernández, but at a stoppage two minutes later, Maignan was abused again. He walked out of his penalty area again and toward the sidelines, where he paused for a moment with team-mates before leading them down the tunnel leading to the changing rooms.

Maresca signalled for the game to be stopped. Milan’s manager, Stefano Pioli, was seen venting his frustrations toward Udinese’s technical director, Federico Balzaretti, who came onto the pitch to speak with officials. It was not clear how anyone planned to proceed but Maignan and his teammates eventually re-emerged after a little less than two minutes in the tunnel.

The game resumed as further warnings against racist abuse were made from the PA but Ultras supporting the home team turned their anger on Maignan, with chants of “scemo” – “idiot” –from the Curva. They whistled loudly when he touched the ball.

Milan, who had dominated the first half hour, lost their rhythm. Udinese soon equalised with a goal from Lazar Samardzic and took the lead early in the second half when Florian Thauvin cut in from the left and lifted a shot over Maignan.

But that was not the end. Pioli sent on Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor, two summer signings who have struggled to establish themselves. The Serbian pulled his team level, diving in to head home the rebound after Olivier Giroud’s deflected shot came back off the crossbar. Okafor sealed a 3-2 comeback win when he swept the ball in from a corner in the 93rd minute.

This was an important result for Milan, who have taken 16 points from their last six games – a sharp turnaround from talk of crises and Pioli’s job being under threat in early December. They have a firm hold on third and have not yet given up hope of battling back into the title race – though Juventus and Inter continue to set a formidable pace ahead of them.

At full-time, though, Pioli’s first thought was not for the result but for Maignan. “I was sad to see a guy who is so respectful to everyone, so sporting, be targeted like that,” he said. “These are situations which must not keep happening, it’s better that these ignorant people stay home and don’t come to the stadium.”

Condemnation of the abuse suffered by Maignan came from all quarters. The Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina said: “There is no place in football for racism.” Italy’s sports minister, Andrea Abodi, posted on X to offer “Our apologies to Mike Maignan”.

The mayor of Udine shared a video on Instagram expressing “solidarity on behalf of the whole city with the player and all of Milan’s supporters for an episode that does not reflect the spirit of the people of Udine or [the region] Friuli.” He invited Maignan and the Rossoneri, through their charity, Fondazione Milan, to help create a new anti-discrimination initiative and said he would ask the city council to grant the player honorary citizenship.

But the most important voice in this story belongs to the man who was the target of the abuse. Maignan spoke eloquently at full-time about his emotions and how the story had unfolded, acknowledging that he did not want to go back out onto the pitch and thanking his teammates for supporting him. “We need to react,” he told MilanTV. “We need to do something.”

On Sunday, he followed up with a social media post, writing: “It’s not the player who was attacked. It’s the man. It’s the father of a family. It’s not the first time this has happened to me. And I am not the first person it has happened to. We have had statements, publicity campaigns, protocols and nothing has changed. Today, there’s a whole system that needs to take responsibility.”

Beyond the abusers themselves, he named the spectators who stayed quiet and allowed it to happen as complicit, as well as Udinese as a club “who only spoke of an ‘interruption to the match’ as though it was nothing”. He said that the authorities will be complicit too if nothing is done.

“I already told you but in case it needs to be repeated: I am not a VICTIM,” he continued. “And I want to say thank you to my club, AC Milan, to my teammates, to the referee, to the Udinese players and to everyone who sent me messages, who called me, who supported me in privately and in public. I cannot reply to everyone but I see you and we are TOGETHER.”

If there was any encouraging note to draw from this story then perhaps it was here, in the widespread support that Maignan received. When Moise Kean responded to racist chants by staring down his abusers after scoring a goal for Juventus against Cagliari in 2019, his own teammate Leonardo Bonucci suggested that he deserved a share of the blame.

The question of what practical steps Italian football must take to prevent such incidents from repeating, though, remains unanswered. After the abuse against Maignan in their stadium four years ago, Juventus identified a responsible fan and banned him. Balzaretti said that Udinese will work with the authorities to track down and punish those who targeted the player on Saturday.

Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, called on Sunday for “an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned” and some would go further than that. Marco Zoro, the former Messina defender, understands what Maignan has been through better than most – having himself threatened a walk-off when he was abused while playing for Messina away to Inter in 2005.

Asked by La Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday what the solution could be to prevent these incidents, he replied: “Close the stadium for six months. It’s true that we’re talking about a small part of the support, if you can call it that, but there needs to be a signal …

“Italy is a stupendous country,” he continued. “It took me by the hand as a young kid and made dreams come true, but change is a slow process. It’s incredible that after almost 20 years we are still talking about the same things: insults, racist chants, ignorance. Serious measures are never taken, it’s a mortal sin.”