“You are complicit”, Mike Maignan’s strong response after the racist insults received against Udinese

The goalkeeper of the French team, target of racist insults on the Udinese field on Saturday, points the finger at the responsibility of some of the supporters as well as the opposing club.

After the actions, Mike Maignan adds the words. The goalkeeper of the France team and AC Milan took up his pen in a strong press release, published on Sunday January 21, the day after the insults and racist behavior of which he was the target during the Serie A match at home. ‘Udinese. The former PSG and Lille goalkeeper denounces these incidents, as he had already experienced since his arrival at the Lombard club. Maignan had chosen on Saturday to leave the field for a while and now denounces these “attacks“, and the “complicity” many actors face these actions.

“It was not the player who was attacked. It’s the manbegins Maignan. He’s the father of the family. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. And I’m not the first this has happened to. We issued press releases, advertising campaigns, protocols and nothing has changed.“

During the match, Maignan first reported to the fourth referee, then to the main referee, in the 27th minute the words and shouts coming from the stand behind his goal. A few minutes later, the 28-year-old chose to leave the field to go to the locker room, accompanied by his teammates, before play resumed a little less than ten minutes later.

The Frenchman, who claims to refuse to consider himself as “a victim“, now calls for profound change,”it’s a whole system that must take its responsibilities” he estimates, before listing those concerned. “The perpetrators of these acts, because it is easy to act in a group, in the anonymity of a platform. The spectators who were in the stand, who saw everything, who heard everything but who chose to remain silent, you are complicit. The Udinese club, which only spoke of an interruption of the match, as if nothing had happened, you are complicit. The authorities and the prosecutor, with everything that is happening, if you do nothing, YOU WILL ALSO BE COMPLICED.“

Since the incidents, Mike Maignan has received numerous signs of support, from the sporting class (Kylian Mbappé, the French Football Federation, etc.) as well as politicians, like the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. “It’s a difficult fight, which will take time and courage. But it’s a fight that we will win”assures the French international.