According to the Tasnim news agency, Italian Minister of Sports Andrea Abodi apologized to Dusan Vlahovic for the racist insults he gave him yesterday (Sunday) during Juventus’ match against Atalanta.
Yesterday in Bergamo, Juventus defeated its host with a score of 2-0, and the second goal of this game was scored by Vlahovic. In the last 10 minutes of the game, he faced the racist slogans of the Atalanta fans. In his joy after his goal, he made a gesture of silence for the Atalanta fans, which according to the referee was provocative and caused him to be warned.
In the press conferences at the end of the game, while Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri emphasized the need for officials to deal with racist behavior and to forgive Vlahovic’s yellow card, his counterpart in Atalanta, Gianpiero Gasperini, claimed that the chants were not racist. The response of the Minister of Sports of Italy was met.
Andrea Abodi wrote on her personal page on social networks: “My no, our no” to racism has no color and neither should it have color, whether it is the color of the shirt or the color of the skin. It is not just a religion or a person. No to racism forever. Just like respect, which is always important, and those who do not understand this matter must be held accountable for their wrong behavior, always and everywhere. For our part, we apologize to Dusan Vlahovic.
Part of the Italian sports minister’s statement was aimed at Gasperini, who claimed to clear the charge from his team’s fans that if the content of their chants against Vlahovic was racist, then their chants were directed at the Serbian and Croatian players of their own team, including Pašalić and James City.