LUALUA's racist claims against Inter

By Matthew Jones
March 14 2003

It was brought to the attention of UEFA, that Lomano LuaLua was at the centre of racist remarks made by Inter's striker, Christian Vieri. Apparently, he got LuaLua's attention, and called him a "monkey".

Following Newcastle's 2-2 draw away at the San Siro stadium, LuaLua brought up some claims against Inter's Christian Vieri.

Yesterday, UEFA were ready to investigate those claims. A statement on the UEFA website read:

"Uefa is to investigate allegations that Internazionale FC's Italian international striker, Christian Vieri, made racist remarks to Newcastle United FC's Lomana LuaLua during the Uefa Champions League match in Milan."

Ofcourse he denied these claims.

What did Vieri say?
"Even though we were in a turbulent phase of the match, I didn't say any words of a racist nature. I just tried to distance the player, who had only that moment been booked, by telling him to move back."