Italian soccer authorities unveil new anti-racism measures

ROME — After weeks of silence, Italian soccer leaders are finally starting to confront the growing problem of racism inside the country’s stadiums — although not without another insulting gaffe by one official.

Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina hailed new rules approved this week that make clubs responsible for identifying offenders of any unruly conduct in the stands as a “landmark turning point.”

Whereas clubs previously faced having portions of their stadiums closed for racist chants, now the teams can avoid such punishment if they name the offending fans and hand over their identities — or at least demonstrate that they did everything in their power to cooperate with investigating authorities.

“The responsibility is no longer objective but rather it becomes personal,” Gravina said. “If a club now adopts and fully applies our model it no longer has anything to fear.”

The move comes in response to a recent police crackdown on Juventus “ultra” fans linked to alleged infiltration by the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta crime mob. The investigation exposed that militant-like supporters allegedly blackmailed their own team by threatening racist chants which would result in a costly stadium closure if the club did not provide them with extra tickets for resale.

The federation’s new antiracism measures also require clubs to report high-risk matches to authorities ahead of time, establish and enforce a code of ethics, adopt a disciplinary system and create an external watchdog group to oversee enforcement.

“However, if some clubs don’t want to share the names of those responsible then (the responsibility) goes back to being objective and they can still be punished,” Gravina added.

The rules approved at a federation board meeting were quickly overshadowed, though, by a comment from Lazio president and federation board member Claudio Lotito.

Lotito said that jeers are not always “a discriminatory or racist act.”

“I remember when I was young, often they would chant ‘boo’ not at colored people but at people who had normal, white skin to discourage them from scoring,” Lotito added.

A day later, Lazio issued a statement acknowledging that Lotito had used “an inappropriate term,” but added that his words were “manipulated.”

Lotito’s outburst came after three black players — Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, AC Milan’s Franck Kessie, and Fiorentina’s Dalbert Henrique — were targeted by racist chants in the opening four rounds of Serie A. No sanctions were handed out by the Italian league, federation or police for the chants.

However, Brescia was recently given a suspended sentence of a partial stadium closure after its fans shouted “zingaro” — or “Gypsy” — at Juventus midfielder Miralem Pjanic, a Bosnia international who is white.