Football fan in Italy gets 5-year ban for racially abusing AC Milan goalkeeper Maignan

By Can Erozden

A football fan in Italy was handed a five-year ban from the country's stadiums for racially abusing AC Milan's French goalkeeper Mike Maignan, the state-run ANSA news agency reported.

It said that a 46-year-old "known criminal from the province of Udine" has been banned from any sports events for chanting abuse at 28-year-old Maignan 12 times during last weekend's match.

Udinese said in a statement that in a joint effort with the local police, the Italian club identified the suspect to ban the person for life from its stadium.

Maignan was subjected to racist abuse Saturday during an Italian Serie A match that Milan won 3-2 at the Bluenergy Stadium.

The match was briefly suspended in the first half and Milan players went to the locker room after racist chants against Maignan.

The match restarted after a short pause.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Sunday called for the "automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism."

"As well as the three-step process (match stopped, match re-stopped, match abandoned), we have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists," he said, expressing FIFA's "full solidarity" with victims of racism and discrimination.

In Italian football, there have been many racist incidents for years.

Several well-known Italian Serie A players such as Napoli's Victor Osimhen, Roma's Romelu Lukaku, Juventus' Moise Kean, and former Inter and Milan forward Mario Balotelli suffered racist abuses in previous seasons.