Racism is a plague that has to be eradicated- Leonardo Bonucci

The Italian defender condemned the racist remarks against striker Romelu Lukaku as a 'plague'.

Romelu Lukaku suffered racist abuse as he hit the winning penalty for Inter Milan in their 2-1 win at Cagliari last weekend. The former Manchester United striker, who moved to Italy this summer, was the target of monkey chants from the home supporters as he stepped up to hit the spot-kick.

Talking about the incident, Leonardo Bonucci said that racism should be tackled sensibly and urged the authorities to not to generalise these things.

Terming this incident as a 'plague', defender Leonardo Bonucci spoke against the racist crowd in Serie A.

"It's a delicate situation. There are certain measures to hold the guilty responsible," he told Sky.

He also spoke that not all fans should be generalized as racists because of a few bad apples.

"I believe it's not right to generalize, we have entities and means to take the guilty ones and ban them from entering the stadium."

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— Italy (@azzurri) September 4, 2019

"And I don't think they it happens only in Italy, we have seen such episodes in other European championships as well. So, I think it would be to much to point a finger."

"Racism is a plague that has to be eradicated."

Romelu Lukaku has demanded immediate further action be taken to tackle racism in football and says "we're going backwards" with the issue.

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 2, 2019

In the aftermath of this incident, NHO "Kick It Out" launched a scathing attack on the Italian Football Federation, saying there had been a “clear failure in process” and the game should have been abandoned.

The racist abuse directed at Romelu Lukaku in only his second match in Serie A will do little to help the image of both Cagliari and Italian football and attitudes towards racists chants directed at black players.

In the previous season, Moise Kean was subjected to similar racist chants when has playing for Juventus in the same stadium. Now at Everton, the 19-year-old striker had found support from all corners of the football fraternity.

Inter are now top of Serie A on six points after two rounds along with Torino and champions Juventus.