NEWS Italian Football Association and UCEI launch cultural initiative against racism

By Adam Smulevich

The Italian Football Association (FIGC) and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) have launched a cultural task force against racism in stadiums, FIGC President Gabriele Gravina announced last week.

The project – he explained – was created in agreement with UCEI President Noemi Di Segni as a response to an increasingly wide-spread offensive language “that generates concern but also leads us to invest more and more in education and training”.

A recent event organized by UCEI to kick racism and antisemitism out of Italian stadiums which was recently held in Rome and was attended by Gravina among others discussed these topics.

“The UCEI did very well in organizing this meeting, because as I have been saying since I took office, we must put in place very concrete tools, not only when chants and serious episodes happen,” Minister of Sports Vincenzo Spadafora said on that occasion.

In announcing the establishment of the task force, Gravina also condemned verbal violence, also between fans.

“In stigmatizing these behaviors – he stated – I am convinced that the FIGC, as a point of reference for Italian football, should enhance the many positive examples of which our world, fortunately, is full “.