28th January, 2021
AC Milan striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has come out to defend himself against accusations he aimed racist slurs at Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku during the Coppa Italia quarter-final on Tuesday.
In an Instagram post, he made it clear there is no place for racism in “Zlatan’s world.”
Ibrahimovic and Lukaku, who played together at Manchester United, had an angry exchange at the end of the first half, before they had to be kept apart as the players left the pitch at the break.
The referee cautioned the duo, before showing another yellow card to Ibrahimovic and sending it off for a foul on Aleksandar Kolarov in the second half.
AC Milan went on to lose 2-1.
The BBC claimed Ibrahimovic had said “go do your voodoo” to Lukaku, an apparent reference to 2018 comments from Everton owner Farhad Moshiri that the Belgian turned down an offer to stay in Merseyside on the advice of a “voodoo message.”
However, the Swedish professional footballer has now said: “In Zlatan’s world, there is no place for racism.
“We are all the same race — we are all equal. We’re all players some better than others.”
The Italian Football Federation is likely to make a decision on the matter on Friday.
In ZLATAN’s world there is no place for RACISM.
We are all the same race – we are all equal !!
We are all PLAYERS some better then others.https://t.co/DhguHUOFte— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) January 27, 2021