Resounding protest by Ousseynou’s team after the shout of a spectator. The sports director Scottà: “Enough, the only thing is to leave”
THERE ARE. “Shut up, nigga.” Thus, with three words as hard as stones, racism managed to ruin another Sunday of sport. And this time we are not exaggerating: San Michele Salsa did not tolerate the situation and, after 25 minutes of the game – when the insult arrived – went to take a shower.
Only the Cisonese remained on the field, the host team that will probably win 3-0 at the table but that now will have to contend with the sports judge: the referee – according to testimonies – heard the insult shouted in silence by one of the its supporters. Something similar happened last Sunday in Lendinara, in the Rovigotto: Union Vis Lendinara, in the First category, was punished with a closed-door match after the referee had received racist insults. The day’s program did not suggest such a disgusting ending.
Two teams had to go on the pitch with a desperate need for points: the Cisonese had only one after three games, the San Michele Salsa not even that. Both needed to win, which is also why visiting defender Diedhiou Ousseynou approached the referee in the area closest to the stands before the half hour. Before a throw-in he had asked him why he had not whistled an alleged offside: “I will whistle the offside, when I think I do,” the referee, Franco Ciprandi from Treviso, replied.
An answer like many others, given to remind the players that on the pitch the referee commands and only him. It was then, in the brief moment of silence following that answer that did not allow for replies, that the scream and the racist insult started. An intolerable situation, so much so that another San Michele player turned towards the spectator calling him ignorant. The referee applied the rules and expelled Ousseynou’s companion, guilty of having insulted the public, but the turmoil broke out.
The guest coach, Domenico Del Puppo, was in the stands and stepped under that spectator, also receiving mockery of him: “I didn’t say anything, it was you who said it,” he heard a reply. The situation in the stands ended there, but the visiting players didn’t want to know. They went back to the locker room and from there they went out only to go back to their home, not before receiving solidarity from some players of the home club: «A black boy came to our locker room to shake our hand. It was a nice gesture: I know that in his locker room he then burst into tears », says Manuel Scottà, San Michele sporting director.
It was he who spoke to the referee at the end of the match: «The referee heard the insult and it was impossible not to hear it: there was absolute silence at that moment and the game was stopped. Such a thing had never happened to me: insults yes, I have heard of all kinds. But episodes of racism, and of this gravity, never. Probably the one who yelled those insults is a parent. We were losing 1-0, but we probably would have gone even if we had been ahead, ”says Scottà. Ousseynou has been in San Michele for three seasons, since the club hit its historic promotion in Prima. Previous years he had played in Vittsangiacomo and Conegliano.
La Cisonese, after apologizing to San Michele for what had happened, did not comment on what happened.