Romelu Lukaku Urges Players to 'Unify' Against Racism in Football After Suffering Abuse at Cagliari
Inter striker Romelu Lukaku has called on footballing authorities, players and those in charge of social media websites to do more in the fight against racism.
The £72m summer signing was on target for the second game running as his new side earned a 2-1 victory away to Cagliari, though the Belgian was subjected to abusive chanting from sections of the home crowd. It is not the first incident of its kind to occur at the Sardegna Arena, with Juventus' Moise Kean met with monkey noises when the Bianconeri played there in April.
Serie A officials failed to punish Cagliari following Juve's win in Sardinia last term, whilst Manchester United duo Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford have both been the target of racial abuse this season.
In a post on his Instagram page, Lukaku said: "Many players in the last month have suffered from racial abuse...I did yesterday, too.
"Football is a game to be enjoyed by everyone and we shouldn't accept any form of discrimination that will put our game to shame.
"I hope the football federations all over [the] world react strongly on all cases of discrimination!!! Social media platforms need to work better as well with football clubs because every day you see at least a racist comment under a post of a person of colour.
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"We've been saying it for years and [there's] still no action...Ladies and gentlemen it's 2019, instead of going forwards we're going backwards and I think as players we need to unify and make a statement on this matter to keep this game clean and enjoyable for everyone."
The Inter forward's statement came hours after Chelsea boss Frank Lampard revealed that the Blues are set for talks with social media companies after their players were also targeted.
