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Former Milan star Eranio digs himself deeper hole in racism row
These comments, uttered during Roma’s 4-4 draw with Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday, have cost Stefano Eranio his job as a pundit for Swiss TV channel RTI.
The former Milan star was berating the newly-acquired Roma defender for missing an assignment on one of the German side’s goals, but is now finding himself on the end of a sterner shellacking from half the planet for his insensitive and horrifically misguided comments.
It seems, however, that Eranio has learned little from his experience. Not content with putting one foot in his mouth, he promptly stuck the other one in for good measure.
“I’m not a racist,” he told the Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday.
“I’m not changing my mind. If they grew up in Europe, African players would win on all stages. And yet they’ve never won a World Cup.”
But isn’t Rudiger a Berliner, born and raised?
“Ok, if there’s one mistake I’ve made, it’s not knowing that he was born in Germany, so he has a grounding in tactics.”
What of the “tactical mistake” then?
Eranio’s comments aren’t edifying in the slightest. He next decided to dig his grave deeper by talking about Marcel Desailly.
“I didn’t want to paint every African player with the same brush. I’ve played with Desailly… he was lucky enough to be raised and coached in France.”
The interview came in light of Swiss Italian-speaking channel RTI’s decision to part ways with the former Milan star, declaring that “a comment [like] that is completely incompatible with the rules and the code of conduct which public service entails”.
