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FOOTBALL

Italian football chief sacked for ‘lesbian’ slur

The president of Italy's amateur football federation, Felice Belloli, was sacked from his post on Thursday following reports he made homophobic comments against women footballers, according to reports.

Italian football chief sacked for 'lesbian' slur
Italy's footballers celebrate after defeating Venezuela in their Fifa U-17 Women's World Cup Costa Rica 2014 third-place match. Photo: Ezequiel Becerra/AFP

Belloli became the subject of an Italian football federation (FIGC) inquest last week following the comments, which were reported to management at the FIGC.

The FIGC held a meeting in Rome on Thursday and Belloli, according to a website report on La Gazzetta dello Sport, was “voted out” of his post.

Belloli's comments, made on March 5th, came to light last week in a report on www.soccerlife.it, which had obtained a trancript of the meeting.

He is reported to have said during a meeting on women's football: “That's enough, we can't keep on talking about giving money to these four lesbians.”

Belloli denied he had made the comments but FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio immediately underlined the threat to Belloli's position.

“If Belloli has said these things, then it's serious. These words are hateful and unacceptable,” said Tavecchio, a former president of the amateur federation.

Tavecchio was handed a ban last year after being accused of racist remarks during his campaign to take over the FIGC presidency.

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RACISM

VIDEO: Spain’s La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

Spain's La Liga on Monday said it was reviewing a video of a child making racist insults towards Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during the 2-2 draw with Valencia at the weekend.

VIDEO: Spain's La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

“We’re in the process of studying and analysing the facts from a legal standpoint to see what we can and should do,” La Liga sources said.

In a video published by a journalist for ESPN Brasil, and picked up by Spanish media, a boy sitting in a woman’s lap can be heard calling Vinicius a “monkey”.

The Brazilian scored twice for Madrid as his team recovered from two goals down at Mestalla on Saturday.

Vinicius raised his fist in a “Black Power” salute after the first of his two goals at a ground where he was racially abused last season. Valencia subsequently banned three people from the stadium for life.

The 23-year-old has become a symbol of the fight against discrimination in Spanish football after suffering racist abuse on many occasions, and he was jeered repeatedly by home supporters on Saturday.

Jude Bellingham was sent off after the final whistle against Valencia for protesting after the referee blew the final whistle right before the England midfielder headed home what he thought was the winning goal.

READ ALSO: Football star Vinicius highlights racist behaviour from Spanish fans

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