Roma’s Juan Jesus: ‘England’s players should walk off if they are racially abused in Bulgaria’
Juan Jesus, the AS Roma defender who was the victim of racist abuse last month, has thrown his support behind the England team after Gareth Southgate’s squad pledged to walk off the pitch in the event of bigoted chanting during the upcoming matches against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
“I agree with the England players,” Jesus said. “It is the right thing to do. It would send out a strong signal. It is not right to be discriminated against for the colour of our skin. It’s 2019. It’s not tolerable, it’s not acceptable.”
Andrea Dell’ Aquila, a Roma fan, sent Jesus a direct message on Instagram, saying, “You belong in a zoo, damn monkey, ******.” The club reacted immediately by banning the abuser for life and calling on Italian authorities to clamp down on racist behaviour. Roma made their point on social media, tweeting the league’s official account with the message, “Are you really serious about tackling racism in Italian football @SerieA?”
Jesus endorsed the England players’ stance. “I have considered walking off myself,” he said. “If there were any racist chants from the stand I would not hesitate.”
Bulgaria is the potential flashpoint game for England. Southgate’s team will play in Sofia on Monday in a partially-closed stadium after Bulgarian supporters were found guilty by Uefa of racist behaviour during matches against Kosovo and the Czech Republic in June. The closure of 5,000 seems to be little deterrent, however.
The eastern European nation has history in this area. The Bulgarian Football Union were fined £34,000 in 2011 after monkey chants were aimed at Ashley Young during England’s 3-0 win at the Vasil Levski Stadium.
Jesus called on football’s ruling bodies to follow Roma’s lead and clamp down hard on any transgressors. “Roma sent out a very strong signal by banning the fan that sent me the racial abuse,” he said. “They set an example for the Italian league. Hopefully the football authorities will build on that.”
Yesterday, the Italian football federation fined Atalanta £9,000 because their supporters singled out Dalbert, the Fiorentina defender, for racial abuse last month. The game was stopped for three minutes and a warning was broadcast in the stadium. The same disciplinary body fined Roma about £13,500 after one of their staff applauded sarcastically in a referee’s face.
Jesus is disappointed with Atalanta's meagre punishment for the chanting. “It’s too little a fine for such awful behaviour,” the 28-year-old said. “It’s inconceivable and ironic that Atalanta fans are booing a black player when they’ve got black players in their team. They are discriminating against their own players.”
In the aftermath of the incident involving Jesus, the player’s abuser attempted to claim that he was the victim and his privacy had been compromised. La Repubblica newspaper published an interview with Dell’ Aquila where he suggested opinions like his were commonplace and warned that his public shaming could incite violence. He asked, “What if I go home now and find 10 black boys waiting for me? Did Juan Jesus think of that?” The question went unchallenged by the reporter.
Jesus is appalled. “The article gave a voice to someone who does not deserve to speak out on the subject,” the player said. “He did not deserve to have space in the newspaper.”
Contrary to Dell’ Aquila’s assertion, Jesus said public reactions have been overwhelmingly positive. “I received lots of nice messages from fans and want to thank them,” he said. “I have been in the country for seven years now and it’s nice to see that racists are in the minority.”
During his time in Italy awareness of racism has grown, Jesus said, as have attempts to eradicate bigotry. He also praised the actions of Premier League clubs. “A growing number of people are realising about this phenomena,” he said. “But more needs to be done.
“Chelsea set a good example when they banned the fan that booed Raheem Sterling. Things need to be changed and we need to look at gender and religious discrimination, too. There’s no place for discrimination in football.”
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