Black players from the Rossoneri’s Under-10 youth side were allegedly booed and heckled by parents on the sidelines during their Universal Cup match with PSG.
he Universal Cup is an annual youth tournament featuring 48 teams from around the world – including Chelsea, Juventus, Inter, Ajax and Benfica – and is currently taking place in Forte dei Marmi in Tuscany.
On Sunday, AC Milan’s Under-10s played against their PSG equivalents for a place in the semi-finals but their black players were booed and heckled throughout the match by parents on the sidelines.
According to a report from Goal.com, black players on AC Milan’s under-10 academy side were “booed and heckled throughout the match by parents on the sidelines” during a match yesterday, though it wasn’t immediately known whose parents were shouting the abuse. The AC Milan youngsters were taking on PSG in the quarterfinals of the Universal Cup, a prestigious youth tournament held in Northern Italy. After the match, which Milan won 4-0, the team complained to tournament organizers, and heartbreakingly “consoled their black players who had been abused.”
AC Milan released the following statement
MILAN – The Milan youth sector team, the Esordienti 2004, take on Benfica today in the semi-final of the Universal Cup. The prestigious youth tournament is taking place in Forte dei Marmi and kick-off is at midday. Milan reached this stage after defeating PSG yesterday.
It has been brought to our attention however that during yesterday’s match between Milan-PSG, that there was alleged incidents of racism from certain “people” in the stands towards Milan’s black players.
We do not wish to magnify the issue, but truly hope that these reports aren’t true or that it was simply a sporadic incident. If they were to be confirmed, then it would be simply unacceptable.