Football news - Corriere dello Sport lash out at ‘Black Friday’ headline anger

The paper accompanied the headline with a picture of Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukaku to preview the Friday night match between their respective clubs, Inter Milan and Roma.

Above the headline, it read: "Lukaku and Smalling, former team-mates at Manchester United and today idols at Inter and Roma, this is the battle within the battle tomorrow with the scudetto and a Champions League place at stake.”

The headline was condemned by the players, their clubs and anti-racism group FARE.

Smalling criticised the headline as "highly insensitive", with Romelu Lukaku later adding his voice to the condemnation, accusing the newspaper of "fuelling racism", and AC Milan and Roma issued an immediate ban to the paper. While Fare, an anti-discrimination organisation, tweeted: "The media fuels racism every day. This is today's edition of Italian sport daily Corriere dello Sport."

However, the editor of the Italian daily doubled down, defending the journalist in a statement released on Thursday.

"'Black Friday', for those who want to understand it and can understand it, was only praising diversity, taking pride in diversity, the magnificent wealth of diversity,” began Ivan Zazzaroni.

"If you don't understand it, it's because you can't do that.

"It's an innocent article, perfectly argued by (journalist) Roberto Perrone, that has been made poisonous by those who have poison inside them."

The front page of Friday’s edition went a step further, decrying what it called a “lynching of a newspaper that for a Century has defended liberty and equality,” under the headline “Who are you calling racist?”

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"It is important that I acknowledge that what occurred this morning was wrong and highly insensitive," a statement from Smalling read.

"I hope the editors involved in running this headline take responsibility and understand the power they possess through words, and the impact those words can have."

Lukaku also released a statement on social media accusing the newspaper of "fuelling racism".

"Instead of focusing on a battle between two teams, Corriere dello Sport comes with the dumbest of headlines I have ever seen in my career. You guys keep fuelling the negativity and racism issue.

"Education is key. You guys at Corriere dello Sport should do a better job at that..."

Roma chief strategy officer Paul Rogers said the headline "overshadowed" its intention to be positive.

"The intention of the newspaper article was actually positive," said Rogers, per BBC Sport.

"But this headline has totally overshadowed the anti-racist message contained within the story.

"Unfortunately, as we've seen on social media, more people will see that ill-judged headline on the front page than read the actual article and it creates new issues at a time when we are all trying to tackle the issue of racism in Italian football."

Inter said on Twitter: "Football is passion, culture and brotherhood. We are and always will be opposed to any form of discrimination."

"It is totally unacceptable to see such casual ignorance on racism. We will not stay silent on this issue…"

The club later issued a statement saying they had issued a ban to Corriere dello Sport from club training facilities and media activities with players until the end of the year. Roma have issued the same ban.