The Ghana Football Association (GFA), says it does not condone the racial abuse Ghanaian footballer Sulley Muntari suffered earlier this week in Italy during a league game.
According to the FA, it was regrettable that the referee in the game booked Sulley Muntari for complaining about the abuse, while the Italian FA subsequently slapped him with a ban for the incident.
Spokesperson for the GFA, Saani Diara, in an interview with said the FA is actively looking into the matter.
“We condemn the racist attack directed at Sulley Muntari. We would like to also condemn the action of showing him a yellow card and subsequently the Italian FA’s Disciplinary Committee’s decision to uphold the sanction against Sulley Muntari. We think that this action by the Italian Football Federation Disciplinary Committee and the referee, is counterproductive and will further arm the racists with confidence to go on the pitch and verbally abuse any player,” he said.
According to him, the GFA is in touch with Sulley Muntari on the matter and is looking to take a firm stance.
“The GFA has never been aloof on this issue of racism that Sulley Muntari was subjected to. Since the incident occurred, the President of the FA, Kwesi Nyantakyi, has spoken with Sulley Muntari about the incident. Sulley is obviously distraught about what happened; but most importantly he wants changes in the way we deal with racism in football.”
According to the disciplinary committee that investigated the matter, official match reports stated that, only 10 football fans out of the 2,000 spectators chanted the racist slurs, and that was not enough to warrant a walk-off by Muntari.
The Italian FA also said the sanction on Muntari for his protest was within its laws.
But according to Saani Diara, such laws were regressive, and did not support the global call for action against racism in football.
Government has also criticized the Italian Football Association for failing to punish the football fans who racially abused Sulley Muntari.
Ghana’s Former President John Dramani Mahama, has also backed Sulley Muntari’s walk-off after he was racially abused by fans during Pescara’s Serie A match with Cagliari on Sunday. Mr. Mahama in a tweet said he stood with Muntari.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports has also condemned the Italian FA for the sanction against Muntari over the matter.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
