PHOTOS: EPA
This is brilliant. AC Milan midfield hotness Kevin-Prince Boateng has announced that he may leave Italian football after racist chants prompted him to walk off the pitch during a friendly match on Thursday. The entire AC Milan team followed Boateng off the field.
Watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...
The 25-year-old German—who plays for Ghana's international team—says he would do it again even if he were fined or suspended, reports The Guardian.
[Boateng] has been publicly back by Milan, with the club president, Silvio Berlusconi, insisting that his players would always walk off the pitch if they are subjected to further racist abuse.
"I could hear the first monkey calls after five minutes when I was on the ball," he said. "At first, I didn't think anything of it but then it happened over and over again. I went to the referee and told him that if I hear it again, then I'd quit. He tried to calm me down. When it started again in the 26th minute with the monkey calls, then I thought: 'That's it, I'm not carrying on.'"
Boateng told CNN on Friday that he would walk off the pitch again should he face further racist chants – despite Fifa and Uefa warning players against that action. "It's easy to just turn a blind eye; taking action is more difficult," he added. "I would have done the very same thing had it been a Champions League match against Real Madrid – and I will always do it."
Boateng was born in Berlin. More on the German angle and how German media is reporting the incident at Deutsche Welle ...
The other Black players on AC Milan—M'Baye Niang, Urby Emanuelson and Sulley Muntari—were the also targets of racist abuse, reports CNN.
Watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...
Boateng and AC Milan's action's could spark a player revolt against "ineffective anti-racism" policies, reports TIME.
Until now, players have been required, under threat of cards and suspensions, to take no action in response to racist abuse from the crowd, but instead to leave it the issue to the referee and match officials. But the efforts by FIFA and its affiliates—wrist-slap fines imposed on teams and national federations whose fans have transgressed being the strongest sanction used thus far–haven’t stopped the abuse.
Italy's Black football superstar Mario Balotelli walked off the pitch during the Euro 2012 games. That was after "hundreds" of Croatia fans hurled racist abuse, "monkey chants" and threw several bananas on the pitch. Also at Euro 2012: Czech Republic defender Theodor Gebre Selassie was subjected to monkey chants during his side's opener against Russia. The Netherlands' four Black players also faced racist jeers from fans.
Kevin-Prince Boateng's half-brother Jérôme Agyenim Boateng is a German international footballer who currently plays for the top-ranked Bayern Munich. The two brothers faced each other during the 2010 World Cup.
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This could be the only way to get the point across to the crowds. If you can't behave then the game ends. There has to be a consequence to those causing the problem. It is not the players and they should not have to put up with it.
This is a problem in every sport everywhere. This the one place where it is OK to use abusive language because you are in a huge crowd. If others join you then they all think they can.
I hope this catches on with other sports figures. I don't want to or HAVE to work were I am being verbally abused, why should they?
Posted by: BJ Lincoln | 05 January 2013 at 15:43
Exactly!
This is powerful and purposeful and I so appreciate THIS BROTHER'S POINTED ACTION!
Rod, I also appreciate your continued efforts to keep us TAPPED IN, around the world!!!!
I am so proud of this King for saying ENOUGH and walking, saying that even the money and the "fame" aren't worth my soul and my self-worth! BRAVO! This reminds me of Dave Chapelle FINALLY getting it about his show and walking away from $55 MILLION DOLLARS! In the end, if your SOUL, your BEING at stake!
Bravo to Boateng!!!!
Posted by: TheRevKev | 06 January 2013 at 08:52
FIFA has been disgraceful with its silence over this, for far too long. terrific, this, walking off, the entire team.
Posted by: Dan Collier | 06 January 2013 at 10:02