ROME (Reuters) - A veteran Italian pundit has been told he will not be invited back onto one of the country's Sunday night round table programmes after suggesting Inter Milan forward Romelu Lukaku could only be stopped by giving him bananas to eat.
The remark came two weeks after Belgium striker Lukaku, who has only been playing in Italy for one month, was subjected to monkey chants by supporters at Cagliari when he stepped up to take a penalty against the Sardinian side.
"Lukaku is one of the best signings Inter could have made. I don't see another player like him on any other team in Italy, not in Milan, in Juventus, in Roma, in Lazio," he said. "Mr Passirani is 80 years old and to compliment Lukaku he used a metaphor that turned out to be racist," he said.After the Cagliari incident, the Curva Nord group of hardcore Inter fans posted a message on Facebook which claimed the behaviour of Cagliari fans was not racist.
Italian football has been blighted by racism incidents over the last decade. In 2013, AC Milan walked off the pitch during a friendly against a lower division side in protest at racist chanting against some of their players.
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