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UDINE, Italy (AP) — 4 extra Udinese followers who racially abused AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan had been recognized and punished on Wednesday.
Police mentioned three males and a girl had been all given five-year bans — the utmost sentence out there — from all sports activities occasions in Italy. Ranging in age from 32 to 45, they had been recognized from the stadium’s safety digital camera footage.
Udinese additionally issued the quartet lifetime bans from its stadium.
One other fan had been recognized and banned for all times by Udinese on Monday and the membership vowed to do the identical for the opposite “evil individuals” amid requires harder sanctions from authorities. That fan had additionally obtained a five-year ban from police.
The Italian league’s disciplinary decide on Tuesday additionally ordered Udinese to play its subsequent residence recreation — towards Monza — behind closed doorways as punishment for the racism.
Maignan, who’s Black, walked off the sphere throughout Saturday’s Serie A match at Udinese after being subjected to what he later mentioned had been monkey noises. The 28-year-old goalkeeper was joined by his teammates and the match was suspended for about 5 minutes earlier than they returned, and Milan went on to win 3-2.
“It is actually unhappy to see issues like what occurred final Saturday proceed to happen,” Milan teammate Yunus Musah mentioned. “These actions should have penalties; one thing must be executed. Our response on the sphere was proper. It gave us the boldness that we’re a united group, rising from that night stronger than earlier than and with a victory.”
Maignan obtained widespread help from the soccer world and issued a press release on Sunday calling for authorities to take stronger motion.
There have been quite a few racist incidents in Italian and European soccer for years, with victims in Italy together with Kevin-Prince Boateng, Mario Balotelli and Romelu Lukaku.
This month, Lazio was sanctioned with a one-match partial stadium closure for racist chants directed at Lukaku.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer
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