This archive report was first published on 16 September 2019.
Published on September 16, 2019, Italian television station TopCalcio24 has banned one of its pundits, Luciano Passirani, after he made a racist comment about Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku.
Speaking on the show, Passirani said, "If you go one-on-one with him he will murder you." He then added, "The only way to come up against him is maybe give him 10 bananas to eat..."
Programme director Fabio Ravezzani stated that despite Passirani's "immediate apologies," he could no longer participate in their broadcasts.
"Mr Passirani is 80 years old and to compliment Lukaku he used a metaphor that turned out to be racist," Ravezzani added.
"I think it was a terrible lack of momentary lucidity," Ravezzani said. "I cannot tolerate any kind of errors, even if momentary."
