“Save us Roberto”: IPSO rejects “discrimination complaints” on the national front page

COMPLAINTS of “discrimination” on the front page of the National, depicting Roberto Mancini as William Wallace prior to the 2020 Italian EURO final against England, have been rejected by the IPSO press regulator.

On the front page of Saturday, July 10th, the Italy manager could be seen as Mel Gibson’s version of Wallace and read: “Save us Roberto, you are our last hope.”

The underlying text read: “We can’t stand another 55 years with them making out about it.”

READ MORE: Mancini drops Euro 2020 trophy on National’s Braveheart front page

The front page sparked debate and divided opinion across the UK ahead of the historic game at Wembley.

It went viral in Italy, which resulted in Mancini and his captain Giorgio Chiellini praising it at a press conference. The star footballer said: “The front page of the National made me smile at Scotland’s rivalry with England.”

After Italy’s victory over England in the final, Mancini was spotted flying home with The National on his lap, right next to the Euro 2020 winner’s trophy.

Complaints filed with IPSO alleged that the front page violated Clause 12 of the publisher’s code of conduct by discriminating against English people.

The IPSO executive dismissed the complaints, telling the complainants: “Their concern that the article discriminating against English people in general is not personal and is not a code-protected feature. This meant that the terms of this clause were not taken into account. ”

The complainants were informed that they have the right to review the refusal within the next seven days.

Callum Baird (above), Editor of National, commented: “Our Roberto Mancini front page was a huge hit – and the vast majority of people, especially those in Europe and football fans, understood exactly what we meant with it.

“It is perfectly reasonable to make fun of rival sports teams. Nobody would expect Rangers fans to support Celtic in a cup final or vice versa.

“As nice as many of the players on this English team are, with players like Marcus Rashford who did a fantastic job against the Tories, we couldn’t have dealt with the media and commentators rumbling about it for 55 years.

“The mock-up of Mancini as Braveheart was classic newspaper humor and we’re glad so many people – including the man himself and Captain Giorgio Chiellini – are laughing about it.”