Italian TV pundit pays unwelcome compliment

RACIST REMARK

ROME • A veteran Italian pundit has been told he will not be invited back onto one of the country’s Sunday night roundtable programs after suggesting Inter Milan forward Romelu Lukaku could be stopped only by giving him bananas to eat.

The remark came two weeks after Belgium striker Lukaku, who has been playing in Italy for only one month, was subjected to monkey chants by supporters at Cagliari when he stepped up to take a penalty against the Sardinian side.

Luciano Passirani was praising Lukaku’s qualities when he made the remark during the Qui Studio a Voi Stadio programme on Telelombardia.

“Lukaku is one of the best signings Inter could have made. I don’t see another player like him on any other team in Italy, not in Milan, in Juventus, in Roma, in Lazio,” he said.

“This guy kills you in oneon-ones, if you go against him, you will fall. Either you have 10 bananas to eat, that you give to him, or ...”

The presenter immediately reprimanded Passirani, who said the remark was meant as a joke.

Fabio Ravezzani, the program director, later announced that, despite being “the first person to apologize”, Passirani would not be appearing again.

“Mr. Passirani is 80 years old and to compliment Lukaku he used a metaphor that turned out to be racist,” he said.

Lukaku said last month that soccer was going backwards in the fight against racism.

After the Cagliari incident, the Curva Nord group of hardcore Inter fans posted a message on Facebook that claimed the behaviour of Cagliari fans was not racist.