The Serie A club Verona have said they will equip their stewards with small cameras during games in an attempt to combat racism.
The Verona director Francesco Barresi told Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday that the club would be the first in Italy to do so when they take on Juventus at the Bentegodi on Saturday.
Verona’s home game against Brescia in November 2019 was halted for several minutes after Mario Balotelli was racially abused by fans. The club were given a partial stadium ban but that was suspended by the Italian football federation’s appeals court.
In January a 38-year-old fan was given a five-year stadium ban after being found guilty of directing racial abuse at Balotelli. He was accused of initiating the racist chants, which led to a visibly angry Balotelli kicking the ball into the crowd, and was identified by Verona police after they reviewed CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts.
Verona also banned the leader of their ultras, Lucas Castellini, until 30 June 2030 over racist comments he made about the Brescia striker in the days after the incident at the Bentegodi.
For the game against Juventus, set to be a 28,000 sell-out, stewards will wear small “body cams” measuring 8.15cm by 5.45cm. The scheme was successfully tested in the recent home game against Lecce.
Balotelli is not the only player to have been subjected to racism in Italy this season. Internazionale’s Romelu Lukaku was subjected to monkey chants by Cagliari fans in September – and was then told by Inter ultras that such chanting should not be interpreted as racist.
That same month an Italian TV pundit was sacked for saying that the only way to stop Romelu Lukaku was to give “him 10 bananas to eat” and in December the paper Corriere dello Sport was widely condemned for a front page previewing the game between Lukaku’s Inter and Chris Smalling’s Roma with the headline “Black Friday”.
