Yet another famous Italian footballing figure has been embroiled in a race storm after comments were made live on Swiss TV.
Stefano Eranio, who you may remember played for Derby County in the early 00’s, was sacked from RSI having made bemusing remarks about black people whilst commentating on Roma’s 4-4 Champions League draw with Bayer Leverkusen.
Focussing live in the studio on Roma defender Antonio Rüdiger, this is what spewed out his mouth.
Black players in the defensive line often make these mistakes because they’re not concentrated
They are powerful physically, but when it is time to think … they often make this type of error.
Quite sensational stuff we think you’ll agree.
Quickly after his dismissal, rather than nip it in the bud with grovelling apology, the 48 year old made the age old error of explaining his racist remarks when talking to Italian website Tuttomercatoweb.
He goes on;
It’s disappointing that people have created all this controversy. I didn’t offend anyone and I don’t want people to make out as if I’m racist. Anyone who knows me is well aware that I am not.
It was a misunderstanding, I don’t want to be made to appear racist. If they didn’t like my comment, they could’ve just told me and interrupted our collaboration. Why create all this controversy?
He could have stopped right there….but no.
It irritates me to be thrown to the wolves like this. The truth is I gave an incorrect opinion, in the sense that if I’d had to time to explain I would’ve said that I meant black players have never had a school of football in tactical terms similar to ours.
Rüdiger read the situation badly because black players are not accustomed to paying attention to certain details. If they were as detail-oriented as us, then they’d dominate the spot, because they have everything in terms of strength and technique.
Good God.