NEWS Former Italian Soccer Player with Fascist Tattoo Condemns Anti-Semitic and Racist Views

By Adam Smulevich
 
Former Italian soccer player Paolo Di Canio wrote an open letter to the President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) Noemi Di Segni, in which he repudiates “anti-Semitic, racist, discriminatory and violent views.” 
 
In September, Sky Sport channel, where he anchored a show focused on English soccer, suspended him after he appeared with a pro-fascist tattoo on camera. The episode was firmly denounced by the UCEI website www.moked.it and was rapidly circulated on the internet. 
 
“I believe without ifs ands or buts, that Mussolini’s racist laws were a terrible infamy for the history of our country, an infamy that caused an immense tragedy for thousands of Jews in Italy,” Di Canio wrote in his letter to President Di Segni. 
 
President Di Segni commented: “The sense of responsibility to stemming any hatred can contribute to form the conscience and opinions of many, especially of young people. This responsibility weighs even more heavily on those who address the general public and who because of their specific role have clear media recognition.”
 
Di Canio has been questioned over his views many times in the past, when he was still playing and later as a football manager. In 2005, after a match won against Rome, he was fined for making a fascist salute to the supporters of Lazio, the team of which he was the captain at that time.