In a frankly bizarre interview, the Roma fan barred for life after hurling racist abuse at Juan Jesus on social media insists he’s “certainly not racist.”
Juan Jesus posted a screencap of the insults on his Instagram account, which prompted Roma to follow the username, identify the supporter and ban him from their games for life, as well as report him to police.
In a frankly bizarre interview, the Roma fan barred for life after hurling racist abuse at Juan Jesus on social media insists he’s “certainly not racist.”
Juan Jesus posted a screencap of the insults on his Instagram account, which prompted Roma to follow the username, identify the supporter and ban him from their games for life, as well as report him to police.
Now identified as Andrea Dell’Aquila, the man gave an interview with newspaper La Repubblica and it might represent an insight into why racist abuse is such a problem in Italian society as much as in its football.
“I apologise. I was wrong and don’t want to seek excuses,” said Dell’Aquila, just before doing precisely that. He had also initially claimed he'd been "hacked" and abandoned that lame attempt at an alibi pretty quickly.
“I’d like to meet with Juan Jesus, give him a hug and put an end to all this. If Roma want to ban me from the stadium for life, I accept that, even if I don’t agree with it.
“I know that you want to set me up as an example to all of Italy and send a big signal. Want to make me a scapegoat? Fine. But putting me out in the public shaming rack is too much.
“It’s very serious that they published the post with my name. I made a mistake, but the wave of media coverage was too much. If that happens to some kid who is 16-17 years old, you don’t know how he might react. If someone jumps out of a window because he can’t handle the pressure, then what?”
The truly fascinating part of the interview came when he was asked if he was racist, pointing to the fact he had already used similar phrases against Milan players Franck Kessie and Tiemoue Bakayoko last season.
“No, I am certainly not racist and absolutely don’t feel that I am racist. I told the player he was a big ape and I hold my hands up, I got it badly wrong and went over the line.
“I used the wrong term, monkeys, but at times I exaggerate with words. These might be seen as two examples of racism, but I don’t want to be racist and I am not racist.
“I can’t seek justification, I just want to apologise. I know that I made a mistake, but last season Inter fans insulted Kalidou Koulibaly for the entire match with racist chants, so if you ban me for life for one phrase, then you need to ban the entire stadium.”