Roma faced AC Milan on 25 January 2026 at the Stadio Olimpico in a Serie-A matchday.
Lorenzo Pellegrini scored a penalty to earn Roma a deserved point in a 1-1 draw with AC Milan, who missed the chance to close the gap to Serie A leaders Inter.
Koni De Winter’s first goal in just under a year had put Milan on top after a nervy first half, but they could not hold out for all three points. They now sit five points behind their derby rivals Inter Milan.
The visitors took the lead in the 62nd minute when Luka Modric’s brilliant whipped delivery into the box was headed home by Koni de Winter.
But Lorenzo Pellegrini equalised from the spot for Roma on the 74th minute after a handball from Davide Bartesaghi was punished.
But the Incident that is in talks among racists of X took place 4 minutes earlier.
This clip was deliberately cut to remove the part where Modric commits foul on Robinio Vaz earning them free kick. But Modric kicks the ball to waste time.
Without that context, an uninformed viewer would have no idea what led to the card being issued for Modric.
Framing the yellow card shown as racial bias by the referee against a white man (Modric) in favour of a black player, Roma youngster Robinio Vaz.
Now this is very normal incident in an football match, but clip related to this incident is being shared on X “out of context”.
These dubious accounts are using this clip to spread their propaganda against different races and religions. This clip has gained over 4million views and many reactions on this clip are, as expected full of racist comments.
— Serf (@TheRoyalSerf) February 17, 2026
People who don’t even have knowledge about basic rules of the sport, started having conversation around this incident.
Some connected it around the agenda of how this right here is how judicial system in West works.
The referee’s decision was correct and the yellow card was rightfully awarded to Luka Modric. The only reason it became a topic of conversation at all is because it was a short, out of context clip of it was deliberately weaponised by haters.
The account @TheRoyalSerf, which posted a clip that started this entire wave of misinformation, is not a football account in any meaningful sense infact it’s not even a sports account. A look at their posting history on the day of the incident reveals a pattern of content entirely unrelated to sport.
These groups spread propaganda through memes, manifestos, and social media posts, promoting theories like the “Great Replacement”, popularized by French writer Renaud Camus, which claims non-whites are displacing white populations, inspiring attackers like Norwegian Anders Breivik (who killed 77 in 2011) and Australian Brenton Tarrant (who murdered 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019).
This online-to-offline conversation, as mentioned in a 2023 ACM study on US wide propaganda, shows 87% of white supremacist slogans starting online before appearing in real-world events, forecasting radicalization cycles that lead to the violence against people of colour.
Football has always been more than a sport, it is a language spoken across borders, races, and religions. There shouldn’t be any place for discrimination in this world whether on-field or off-the-field.
Even Luka Modric wouldn’t know he is being used to spread hate online.
