Painful situation, Kylian Mbappé supports his teammate after suffering racism

Serie A's Saturday fixture between AC Milan and Udinese, shortly after the 30-minute mark, had to be halted for several minutes when Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan walked off the field mid-game in response to alleged racist comments from the Udinese fans at the Bluenergy Stadium. As Maignan informed his teammates about the incident, the entire Milan playing XI joined the goalkeeper to leave the field and walk to their dressing room.

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Following the incident, the game was suspended for 10 minutes, and upon resumption, AC Milan went on to defeat Udinese by a thrilling 3-2 margin. Football figures from across the globe made sure to share their thoughts of support for the player amidst the reported investigation currently underway. Paris Saint Germain forward Kylian Mbappe was also one of those voices sending out support to his national side teammate. Mbaape, on his X post for Maignan, highlighted the repetitiveness of racism in the football world while making sure to extend his support to the player, saying "You are very far from being alone".

FIFA President Gianni Infantino released a statement on X, in response to the incident, calling for strong actions against racist fans or any party involved in the match. He also called for implementing match forfeits by teams whose fans are accused of racism, along with pursuing criminal charges against the guilty. Infantino also addressed the racism reports that came in when Sheffield Wednesday's Kaisey Palmer faced racism during his team's Championship fixture against Coventry City on the same day.

"FIFA and football shows full solidarity to victims of racism and any form of discrimination. Once and for all: No to racism! No to any form of discrimination!" Gianni Infantino in his statement. "As well as the three-step process (match stopped, match re-stopped, match abandoned), we have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists." Infantino added.

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Cases of racism

Racism in football has long been a huge concern, with the frequency of incidents rising considerably in the past. Players like Vinicius Jr, Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford are amongst the ones who have been at the receiving end of these racist abuses in the recent past.