Muntari suspended for walking off pitch after suffering racist abuse

Sulley Ali Muntari has been suspended by the Italian Serie A's Disciplinary Commission for walking off the pitch during a match between Cagliari and Pescara on Sunday.

Not only has Muntari's yellow card not been rescinded, a one-match ban has been handed to the Ghanaian while Cagliari have avoided any punishment for the racist chants.

The incident has caused huge controversy in Serie A and beyond, as the Pescara midfielder was booked by the referee for dissent.

Muntari said he had complained that parts of the crowd, including a group of children, had hurled racist insults at him from the start of his Italian team's game at Cagliari.

The player said the referee then told him to stop talking to the crowd and ended up showing him the yellow card for dissent in the 90th minute. Muntari then became angry and stormed off the field, as the official refused to stop the game.

The Disciplinary Commission arrived at their decision after the officials at the ground wrote in their report that the racist chants were coming from only around 10 people - less than one percent of the 2,000 people in the stadium.

They also noted it was only audible because the rest of the supporters were staging a ‘silent protest’ and therefore the decision was made not to penalise Cagliari, who escaped without even a warning or fine.