This archive report was first published on 16 September 2019.
Italian football pundit Luciano Passirani has been sacked after making racist comments about Romelu Lukaku on a TV show.
Passirani, a commentator for the Italian TV channel TopCalcio24, made the remarks during a talk show featuring Lukaku as a guest.
According to reports, Passirani suggested that the only way to stop Lukaku from making his way past defenders was to 'give him ten bananas' to eat.
However, Passirani attempted to play down the joke, claiming he did not intend to be racist.
But his apology came too late, as the TV channel's director, Fabio Ravezzani, appeared on-air to immediately issue an apology to Lukaku and confirm that Passirani would never appear on the network again.
Passirani's sacking comes after Lukaku was racially abused during Inter Milan's 2-1 away win at Cagliari, with fans making monkey chants at the striker when he stepped up to take a penalty.
Lukaku later tweeted about the incident, saying that many players had suffered from racial abuse in the past month, and that football should be a game enjoyed by everyone, without any form of discrimination.
He also called on football federations around the world to react strongly against cases of discrimination, and for social media platforms to work better with football clubs to prevent racist comments.
