Fascists in football

Recently Paolo Di Canio was appoined manager of Sunderland football club.

Di Canio has, in the past, described himself as a fascist. He has said Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator of the 1930s and second world war was 'misunderstood'. He has been seen giving straight arm salutes to fans.

All of which I find a bit offensive and silly.

Whether or not Mr Di Canio should be barred from football management as a result of his expressing unpalatable opinions is a separate matter.

In general, I am a believer in freedom of expression. Such statements are meaningless unless applied to people with whom you disagree. Even fascists believe those agreeing with them should be free to express that agreement.

So should Di Canio be barred from football management? On what grounds? I am not that impressed by his record as a manager, but that is not the point. Were we to find out that the greatest football manager in the world is susceptible to a bit of fascism, would that make him unemployable? I imagine not.

It is just one example of hypocrisy is sport. Up until quite recently, certainly in the 1980s, racist chanting at football grounds was commonplace. This was an issue that football failed to really deal with. Only when this sort of behaviour was more generally acceptable in society did this sort of thing stop.

At that point it became a massive priority to stop it in other countries too. Suddenly countries which were still behind the Berlin wall when our fans persisted in chanting racist nonsense are expected to achieve the same level of tolerance that took us decades. It can seem like a way to intimidate the opposition. It reminds me of how for hundreds of years the US abused its black population, then within twenty years of civil rights legislation was applying sanctions to South Africa. Hypocrisy.

It is just this sort of attitude that leads to isolation of minority opinion. This sort of boycotting may be done with the best of intentions, but it will not reduce prejudice, but only serve to drive it underground. Is that to be an objective?

Should a person's political opinions have any relevance to the job they do? Who is it that decides when a person's politics crosses the line into unacceptability? The media? Really?

Whatever else he has done, Mr Di Canio should be judged on his results as manager alone.