An expert in sports law explains why authorities needed more to find Inter defender Francesco Acerbi guilty of racist abuse, but still believe Napoli’s Juan Jesus too.
The verdict from the sporting justice system in Italy caused a great deal of controversy, with Juan Jesus and Napoli furious that he felt ignored or worse still disbelieved when telling them he received a racist insult from Acerbi during their 1-1 Serie A draw.
The statement from the judge goes to great pains to point out that although Juan Jesus was in good faith and felt genuinely aggrieved, there was “insufficient evidence” to charge Acerbi.
It has been compared to another incident in Serie C game Sambenedettese-Padova, when Claudio Santini was given a 10-match ban for insulting Shaka Mawuli in 2021.
“There was no television evidence in the Santini-Mawuli case either, but there was testimony from other players,” lawyer Angelo Cascella told Calciomercato.it.
“The accusation here was incredibly serious and could lead not only to a ban, but potentially even Inter terminating Acerbi’s contract. It could’ve been an indelible stain on the player’s career.
“Before reaching that point, it is only fair to have some evidence. In every game, there are thousands of cameras pointed at the pitch, not just the official television ones, but also smartphones. If there had been even the tiniest bit of evidence, it would’ve emerged by now.
“All the witnesses were interviewed, the audio from the referee’s microphone and VAR: nothing was found. When you are dealing with such a serious accusation, you need to have some proof.”
However, this absolutely does not mean that the authorities believe Juan Jesus was lying about being racially abused either, as that is made very clear in the statement.
“It’s about good faith,” added the lawyer. “Imagine you are in a nightclub or at a restaurant with loud music and lots of other people talking. How many times do we ask the person right next to us to repeat what they said, as we didn’t hear them clearly?
“So it is entirely possible that with 80,000 people around them Juan Jesus in good faith felt he heard something and perhaps misinterpreted Acerbi’s words. This is why some other evidence is important.”
Juan Jesus pointed out in his statement today that if Acerbi said nothing racist, then why did he clearly seem to apologise to the Napoli player?
“Context is important. There did not seem to be a lot of tension or anger before that moment, they are two very experienced players who have been through many, many games. With the evidence that was there, it was not enough to warrant a suspension of this magnitude.”
There are two different ways of clearing someone in the Italian justice system – one is for not having committed the crime, the other is for insufficient evidence – and Acerbi’s clearance was the latter.
This potentially leaves the door open to a change in future and could even allow FIGC President Gabriele Gravina to step in and impose a ban himself.
“That would be a political evaluation and over-ruling his own sporting justice is very, very tricky. He would need the support of some new evidence that wasn’t examined in this case.”
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