Racism in football: the sanction against Udinese reduced

Udinese will not have to play in an empty stadium on Saturday against Monza, the Italian football federation having reduced on appeal the sanction imposed on the club for the racist insults made by some supporters against the goalkeeper of the AC Milan, Mike Maignan.

Instead, Udinese will play their next two home matches with only one corner of the stadium closed. The federation did not specify why the sanction was reduced on Wednesday.

Maignan had left the field after being subjected to what he later said were monkey noises during a recent match. The 28-year-old goalkeeper was joined by his teammates and the match was suspended for around five minutes. They came back and Milan won 3-2.

Maignan received widespread support from the football world and issued a statement calling on authorities to take stronger action.

For years, numerous racist incidents have occurred in Italian and European football. In Italy, Kevin-Prince Boateng , Mario Balotelli and Romelu Lukaku were notably victims of these incidents.

This month, Lazio was punished with a partial stadium closure during a match for racist chants against Lukaku.