Mike Maignan, Udinese takes a stand
A day after what happened in Udinese-Milan, the Friulian club issued a statement. "Udinese Calcio è deeply regrets and condemns all acts of racism and violence. We reaffirm our aversion to any form of discrimination and express our deep solidarity with AC Milan player Mike Maignan in light of the deplorable incident that occurred Saturday in our stadium".
"Udinese will cooperate with all investigating authorities to ensure the immediate clarification of the incident with the aim of taking all necessary measures to punish those responsible. As a club, we will continue to work diligently, as we have always done, to promote diversity and the integration of all ethnicities, cultures and languages among our players, staff, city and a fan base that has always shown fairness,” the note ends.
Maignan had expressed himself this way at the end of the game: "In the first half, when I went to get the ball behind the goal, I heard the monkey verses and said nothing. Then they did it again, so I called the fourth man and explained what had happened. So è you can’t play. Not è the first time, we have to give an important message. A signal".
"Right now I wouldn’t want to talk to the people who did this, it wouldn’t do any good. To help all the players who suffer as much as I did, we need punishment. These are ignorant people, they need to stay home. Real fans come to the stadium to cheer, these things in soccer cannot happen”.
“I did not want to come back, ours è a great club and we have a great group. They all came to me, and after that we went on the field to win the game. The right answer was to get the three points. Right now I don’t look at the standings, we move forward game by game. È the second match of the return leg and we know how è important it is for us".
