Serie A’s ‘lascia stare’ approach not enough in fight against racism

The abuse directed at Kalidou Koulibaly last month was just one in a long line of racist incidents at Serie A stadiums. What can be done?

On Thursday, for the first time this year, there will be Inter fans at San Siro. One section of the stadium, however, will remain conspicuously empty.

The Coppa Italia match against Lazio is Inter’s first following a two-game, whole-stadium ban for their fans, and the last of a three-game ban for the Curva Nord Ultras, punishment for continued racist abuse directed at Kalidou Koulibaly during a Dec. 26 match against Napoli.

In a world in which FIFA thinks an adequate sanction for such behavior is a small fine, perhaps the stadium ban seems a fair punishment. In context, however, both the incident itself and the reaction by the authorities were yet further evidence of how Italian football has failed to seriously address the problem of racism in its stadiums.

There were several announcements over the stadium’s PA system during the match trying to get fans to stop the chanting, and the club released a statement condemning their own supporters’ actions after the game was over. The referee, Paolo Mazzoleni, however, not only failed to follow very clear guidelines by allowing the match to continue, he punished the player, issuing a yellow card as an understandably upset Koulibaly sarcastically applauded him.

“FIFPro and UEFA jointly condemn the racist abuse aimed towards Napoli player Kalidou Koulibaly, last Wednesday during a league match at FC Internazionale in Milan,” an official statement read. “We are very concerned by this unacceptable racist incident and by what appears on the surface to be a failure to respect the widely-recognised three-step anti-racism protocol.”

Given the widespread condemnation, which included calls to suspend the league entirely for the following round of matches, surely this would be a wake-up call for the Italian authorities? Sadly, and somewhat predictably, it was not.

The stadium ban that followed is a standard punishment in Italy, and one that has clearly done little to dissuade such shameful events from occurring time and time again.

“When I played in Italy these things were already happening,” former Parma and Juventus defender Lilian Thuram told Corriere dello Sport on Dec. 31. “After 12 years, unfortunately, it seems the situation hasn’t changed. Do you know what that means? That not enough has been done and racism isn’t a priority for you.”

The Italian authorities might have been expected at least to attempt to deny these claims, with their reputation both in football and as a nation on the line. But no. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini dismissed the incident as “healthy teasing” rather than racism.

It’s not as if this was an isolated incident, either. Since Dec. 26, Roma, Lazio and Bologna Ultras have all been accused of racist or anti-Semitic incidents. None of them have received a punishment.

“I am part of the 98 percent of people in the stadium who didn’t hear it,” Lazio club spokesman Arturo Diaconale told reporters after the Coppa Italia match with Novara, when the chants were heard. “The club naturally condemns any racist or anti-Semitic chant, but we have to consider the dimensions of the phenomenon.

“I think it’s a form of psychosis focusing on either a minority or non-existent incidents. I read about chants as if the entire stadium had participated in them. We mustn’t turn this into a mass panic over nothing. I invite our colleagues in the media to give the right degree of consideration to incidents that would normally be ignored.”

The lack of punishment and denials — which would be comical if the issue wasn’t so serious — make it clear there is a real, complex and deep-rooted problem here. It may “only” be coming from a minority of perpetrators but the propensity to do nothing points at institutional racism that history proves is very difficult to eradicate.

“There are idiots that consider difference in skin color something that makes people superior to others,” AC Milan supporter Michelangelo Gamberini told FanSided. “It’s so sad in 2019 but that’s the way it is. People like these are not typical Italians though, we are welcoming and like to make other people feel accepted. Every tree has his rotten apples, sadly.”

This sentiment was echoed by Empoli season ticket holder Francesco Sani, who also explained that racism was rife in certain stadiums throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, but these events were not widely reported due to the lack of digital media and pay-per-view TV.

“The cause is ignorance, of course,” Sani told FanSided. “But I would like to underline the infiltration on some Curvas from the progressive far-right movement: Lazio, Inter and Verona above all. The media talks about racism in the stadiums. I prefer to say that it’s racism in the same old stadiums.

“Their background is the neo-fascist idea of ‘Italian purity’ that originates from Mussolini’s regime and so the re-discovery of these ideals is the cause. Without far-right fans movements in stadiums, racism is not so prevalent: I refer to Ligurians, Tuscans, Emilians or Southern Italian football fans.”

Like Gamberini, Sani is keen to point out that this is a problem specific to stadiums rather than a society-wide issue.

“We have to underline that the Italian society is more open and tolerant than what is demonstrated by certain people that go to stadiums,” he continued. “The stands have always been a ‘free zone’ in Italy. The Ultras movement was born during the ‘70s.

“At that time political protest became political terrorism. If we look at the number of students, demonstrators and policemen killed between 1969 and 1978 you could believe that it was a civil war: Every week there was a riot, there were urban guerrillas and demonstrators who shot policemen.

“In this situation the authorities thought that it was better to concentrate the anti-system conflict in a football stadium than in the squares: Youth rebellion was easier to control during a game than a demonstration!

“The ‘ritual violence’ passed from the streets to the stadiums. So, the idea was to let things play out in the stadiums so that we are all safe outside. These are the roots of this culture of tolerance of these events. It’s difficult to educate people who have done whatever they want for a long time!”

We’re at a point where the powers that be are protecting the aforementioned minority, who continue to make racist chants in Serie A stadiums, by sidestepping the issue. They allow the problem to persist to the detriment of both the victims and the large number of reasonable Italians whose reputation has become tarnished.

There was some brief hope when the FIGC appointed a new chief, Gabriele Gravina, back in October, only for the official to back referee Mazzoleni in his incorrect application of FIFA guidelines in the Koulibaly case. “We must all be quiet: Mazzoleni applied the rules perfectly yesterday,” Gravina told Sky Italia after the incident. “Some statements haven’t helped the climate.”

By those “not helping the climate,” Gravina presumably means the many voices — including that of Napoli boss Carlo Ancelotti — that have criticized the non-application of clear guidelines in this case.

It’s difficult to know what can be done, but sometimes in Italy those who shout the loudest get the desired outcome, and it’s down to all those who love Serie A to cause an uproar now.

“Violence and racism? I was lucky enough to work abroad for nine years and these things have been eradicated in those countries,” Napoli boss Ancelotti told students at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli during a talk on Jan. 15. “It’s something that Italy must do as a country and it’s not that complicated. Unfortunately, ignorant and rude people continue to go to stadiums. They should take courses in education and respect. Enough is enough now.”

Indeed, the boss has threatened to take his team off the field if the abuse suffered at San Siro is repeated, and one suspects it’s only via these kinds of actions — along with education initiatives — that this problem can be solved.

“I’m still asking myself what can be done,” Gamberini said. “Considering that every time I go to the stadium there is a camera dedicated only to supporters that can recognize every single hair on my face.

“I think authorities think they have bigger problems to solve and by punishing clubs they consider this to be enough. ‘In the end no one got hurt’ is the thinking. It’s shameful. Education is very important now, and new generations, thank God, are growing up with a lot of friends all over the world, so it’s just a matter of time.”

It’s what Sani calls the Italian mentality of “lascia stare” — the equivalent of “leave it be” — the tendency to ignore issues so as not to cause a fuss. The challenge now for all those who enjoy the positives the Italian game has to offer is to stand up for the likes of Koulibaly and indeed anybody who has been affected by such blatant discrimination.

Collectively, fans must make a big enough noise so the Italian authorities can no longer lascia stare.