Italian Serie A football team Torino FC continues to face

mounting backlash for a photo that was initially intended to celebrate the

Black Lives Matter movement.

The Turin-based side posted a photo of Cameroonian

footballer Nicolas Nkoulou kneeling after he scored a goal against Parma,

however, teammate and captain Andrea Belotti, a white Italian man, towered over

him.

— Torino FC English (@TorinoFC1906_En)

— Torino FC English (@TorinoFC1906_En) #BlackLivesMatter ✊✊Ÿ»âœŠŸ¼âœŠŸ½âœŠŸ¾âœŠŸ¿ pic.twitter.com/KrnV56iK86June 20, 2020

As well-intentioned as the image was taken, many Twitter

users were immediately offended by the gesture, saying it was done in poor

taste and called it a slap in the face of the movement.

The tweet hasn’t been removed since its Saturday (June 20)

posting, sparking concerns that its tone was intentional amid the heightened global

racial climate and sensitivity to race relations, particularly in the United

States.

It was a different story on Instagram, as Torino FC’s nearly 275,000 followers were mostly supportive of the high-profile campaign as the team posted photos of Nkoulou kneeling alone as well as him hugging Belotti after scoring.

View this post on Instagram Ÿ“¸Ÿ“¸Ÿ“¸ #SFTA post shared by Torino Football Club (@torinofc1906) on Jun 21, 2020 at 3:00am PDT

So it begs the question as to why the top-flight outfit

chose to use a more controversial image to draw the ire of Twitter users by

accompanying it with the Black Lives Matter hashtag.

“[T]orn between how explicitly racist you have to be to post

this on purpose and how implicitly racist you have to be to post this by

accident,†one football fan tweeted.

torn between how explicitly racist you have to be to post this on purpose and how implicitly racist you have to be to post this by accident — Michael Caley (@MC_of_A)

torn between how explicitly racist you have to be to post this on purpose and how implicitly racist you have to be to post this by accident — Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) https://t.co/eugoYjZvrRJune 21, 2020

For many years, Italy has struggled to deal with covert and

overt reports of racism—even as black football players themselves, representing

the very teams, often complain about the horrible verbal abuse by fans.