Banana outrage shames the sport
Internatonal stars demand action as club suspend player over racist gift
ENGLAND internationals Ellis Genge and Luther Burrell have joined Ireland’s Simon Zebo in calling for action after Italy prop Cherif Traore suffered racist abuse from his team-mates.
Traore revealed on social media on Wednesday that he was given a rotten banana during his club Benetton’s Secret Santa. Yesterday, Benetton released a video which featured Traore.
In it, the Italian side said the incident had been a ‘mistake’ and that those involved had apologised to the player.
Traore was born in Guinea and moved to Italy with his family aged seven. He has since won 15 caps for Italy after making his debut in 2018.
He said he had accepted the apology from those involved and that a meeting had been held to ‘discuss and understand how what one of my team-mates did when exchanging Christmas presents is purely the result of idiocy’.
Benetton later issued a joint statement with Italian rugby, confirming that a player had been suspended.
Both parties reiterated ‘their firm condemnation of all forms of racism and discrimination’ and revealed that an Italian federal prosecutor had launched an investigation into the incident. ‘Similar behaviours have nothing to do with sport,’ the statement read. ‘In the face of episodes like this Benetton will always be on the side of respecting people, their culture, their ethnicity, their faith and their dignity.’
England and Bristol Bears prop Genge said: ‘If there is no further action on this from Benetton then everything we’ve done for rugby against racism has been a tick box for most.’ Former centre Burrell, who earlier this year revealed the racism that he had suffered during his playing career, called on World Rugby to step in. ‘I was disgusted when I saw it,’ Burrell told Sportsmail. ‘Part of me wasn’t surprised, but I was disgusted. I reached out to him (Traore), because it’s abhorrent. ‘I’ve been through this. I know exactly how he’ll feel. He’ll feel isolated. He’s in contract at a club so he won’t have that freedom of speech. He’s not had much support from his team-mates and I can relate to that. It’s just damage limitation for the club. It’s disgusting. ‘He’s an international player and someone wraps a banana for him at Secret Santa. ‘That can’t just be swept under the carpet or nothing will change. They need educating. It’s not banter, it’s not a joke, it’s shameful. This proves there is still so much naivety in rugby.’ Burrell added: ‘The Italian union needs to step in and make somebody accountable. It can’t be brushed under the carpet with one rushed statement. ‘With my case, the RFU launched an investigation straight away. ‘If the union don’t step in, then World Rugby need to do something about it. World Rugby should be asking questions regardless. We’ve had numerous cases now. There will be other cases we don’t know about.’ The United Rugby Championship, the league in which Benetton plays, have asked the Italian club to ‘provide a full report on what has occurred and what meaningful action will be taken’. They added in a statement: ‘Racism and discrimination of any kind are abhorrent, completely unacceptable in society, and counter to the values of rugby.’