Last weekend a dark side of Italian football showed its head again and no major action has been taken to eliminate it once and for all.
An hour into Sunday’s Rome derby and Juan holds his index finger to his mouth. This is in response to racist chants from a section of Lazio fans in the famous Curva Nord directed at the Brazilian international. What followed was a series of disgusting chants and abuse, mainly monkey chants, anytime Juan went near the ball from the Biancocelesti but sadly this is no individual case.
In fact later on in the very same game they were some racist chants from the Roma fans once the French centre back Modibo Diakite entered the field. After the game the FIGC came out with the same generic statements that “they are at the forefront in the fight against racism.” and that “we must intensify this battle.” Yet after that Lazio escaped with just a €20,000 fine and Roma did not receive any punishment at all. There has been much talk from the authorities over the years but now is as good as any time for them to stop talking and start doing.
In 2010 when Italy was hoping to be awarded the Euro 2016 tournament, the authorities declared they were taking serious measures to crack down on racism in the Italian football. Yet nothing noticeable has happened and there is still an underlying problem in the Italian game. Just two weeks ago in another huge game in Italy there were racist chants from the Juventus fans towards the Milan and Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari and who could forget the case of Mario Balotelli.
Born in Sicily to Ghanaian parents, Super Mario endured many racist chants during his fairly short spell at the top end of the Italian club scene. He received more racist abuse than any other player in recent Italian football history and this was mainly due to the fact that some saw his Italian identity as a provocation. The fact that Balotelli often caused a stir with his own actions did not help his cause.
Yet what was shouted at Mario was unacceptable. The most striking insults were that “There are no black Italians.” and a favourite among Juventus fan was “If you jump up and down, Balotelli dies.”
Italy still is mostly a white nation yet around 7.5% of the population are immigrant and with this number set to increase, the treatment towards Balotelli and his generation will become increasing controversial.
It would be wrong to think that this problem in limited just to the football stands, the roots lie deeper in Italian society. Many immigrants living in Italy today would state that their race is an obstacle to their daily life as they face incidents of discrimination. So when looking at racism in football it is necessary to look at the wider picture.
It can be argued that in Britain they have reflected on their colonial past and Germany who have done the same with their Nazism past and both have moved on. Whereas some Italians still believe in the myth of Good Italians, almost soft colonialism and some racial laws that were passed by fascists not Italians in the 1930’s.
Thus when analysing the racist actions of some Italians, we need to remember that only a generation ago Italy was under a fascist dictatorship and although Italy has taken several steps to eliminate elements of this past, it was not that long ago and so people’s beliefs are going to be similar to those in Italy’s past given the short time that has passed since Benito Mussolini was leader of Italy.
However Italy has moved on from these days. Recent behaviour from a minority of fans would not suggest this but it is true. While at the height of the Balotelli saga, there was a possibility that he would choose to play international football for Ghana instead of his native Italy because of the reaction of some Italian fans to him playing in Italy and for the national side and who could have blamed him? Thankfully for all Italian football fans Mario chose Italy.
But what to do about racism on the stands? It would be nearly impossible in the age that we live in to stop every match where there are racist chants. There is an on-going investigation about the recent Rome derby and it will be interesting to see what the outcome will be. One possibility would be a points deduction to any club whose fans use racist language or chants, which would in the future make clubs be more responsible for their fans actions.
However with the roots of this behaviour more deep rooted, surely education is the answer. Italians need to be more aware about this issue and this should start at an early age. Then in years to come there should be a reduction in racist behaviour. It would be unrealistic to think that the Italian government could get rid of all racist behaviour but an improvement needs to be made. Yet this could be a turning point in Italian football history for good or bad.
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they have to do something about this racism. The atmosphere in Italian stadiums is amazing, but when it comes to this, it goes way too far..
England has it too, but seems to be better monitored than in Italy..
Great piece, Richard. Not too long ago I was going to write about how the situation was improving in Italy, but now I’m not so certain.
I was wondering, if someone like Balotelli lights up the Euros (or even World Cup) for all the right reasons, do you think this would have a significant impact upon attitudes towards racism in Italy?
@Clusks
unfortunately you will always have certain idiots at football matches and its only a handful of fans who are acting in a stupid way. I think the clubs need to pin point the trouble makers and ban them from the sport.