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The Italian FA president, Gabriele Gravina, has decided to lift Romelu Lukaku’s one-game suspension for a red card he received during the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal against Juventus. In this unprecedented decision for Italian soccer, the highest institution of the FA has personally taken the decision to pardon Lukaku after Inter lost their appeal to revoke the suspension for the Belgian striker on Friday.
Lukaku’s suspension stems from a yellow card he received after celebrating a late game-tying penalty by shushing the Juventus fans who had been racially abusing him during the match. Juventus had initially been forced to close the part of the stadium those chants had originated in, but were allowed to re-open it after appealing that decision. Lukaku had been issued the one-game ban for that card, his second yellow of the match.
Gravina spoke to the Italian press agency ANSA and said: “There are serious reasons for granting a pardon on an exceptional and extraordinary basis. The principle of the fight against all forms of racism is a founding element of the sports system. Considering that it emerged unequivocally from the report of the federal prosecutor’s office that the aforesaid player has been subjected, on several occasions, to serious, repeated and regrettable manifestations of hatred and racial discrimination such as to be able to justify formally non-regulatory behavior and as such assessed by the race director”.
