AS Roma fans made some racist chanting against Antonio Rudiger when Chelsea faced The Yellows and Reds last season in the Champions League.
Before joining English Premier League side Chelsea in 2017, 25-year-old German footballer Antonio Rudiger played for Serie A side AS Roma. When his current employers, Chelsea, faced AS Roma in the Champions League last season, the home fans made racist chanting against their former player Rudiger.
Rudiger, who plies his trade as a defender, said that UEFA must do more on such situations. Rudiger, who is set to renew his current contract, said, “They need to do more, if they don’t do more they’re the same as the people doing it. Maybe sometimes they think it’s hard to punish their fans but at the end of the day, to me, it’s a clear sign that you’re accepting it.”
Antonio Rudiger was racially abused by Lazio when he played for AS Roma. He had, in 2017, said, “I take this very seriously because I cannot and must not ignore something like this. I am part of this too. Racism is a serious issue here.”
He admitted he had a great time in Italy but said that some must needed to get punished harder. He said, “I dealt with that in my own way by keeping quiet and respecting Italian culture. I can never say that I did wrong or misbehaved, that’s what’s important for me and that’s how I carried on. Just because some idiots say things, I don’t need to involve the whole of Italy in that, I like Italy and had a great time there but some people need to get punished harder.”
Author’s Take
The governing bodies must consider such incidents as crimes and should punish the convicts. Recently, Mesut Ozil quit from German national team over racism after the German media’s and fans made him the scapegoat for Die Mannschaft’s debacle in the FIFA World Cup held in Russia. Racial abuse is a heinous crime and is a punishable offence. The governing bodies, as Rudiger said, must do more and punish the convicts.
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