Antisemitic and racist hatred is an old issue which has never stopped corroding the curves of Italian stadiums. It is a lacerating theme whose consequences spread far beyond the cheering circles and the ninety minutes of a football match. Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, highlighted this problem during an extensive interview granted to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the most important national sports newspaper.
\nThis is an in-depth conversation that takes its cue from the latest news episode but touches different open questions of an issue which is extensive and for the majority still unresolved, also due to single clubs\u2019 responsibility. During the interview Di Segni says: \u201cI experience every kind of chant, whether antisemite or which glorifies other forms of racism, as a stab\u201d.
\nA reaction to this is essential, she then continues. This is \u201ca work that can\u2019t only come from Jewish people: the response to discomfort, to evil, to the sorrow provoked by chants or banners, calls in many different subjects\u201d. Among others \u201cfootball industry, politics, the judiciary but also schools\u201d.
\nAbout this matter Di Segni observes: \u201cThose moments when you start living football, when you start playing it, cheering it, are fundamental. We need to respond to this offensive banalization according to which calling your opponent Jewish is an insult. It is a matter of culture, that regards every family\u201d.
\nIt is clear, she then adds, that politics and the judiciary have a responsibility in this matter. Above all \u201cwe are struck by the lack of timeliness in some circumstances; we also know that very often the same people subject to Daspo (Ban on Access to Sporting Events) can be found in different stadiums and law is not enforced\u201d. The example given is the one concerning the stickers of Anne Frank with yellow and red t-shirt that caused a lot of indignation in the autumn of 2017. \u201cWe took action, we got the lawsuit started, the perpetrators have been identified, but due to a series of procedural technicalities we are still far from the conclusion of the investigation. Hate crime needs to be better defined\u201d, demands Di Segni. This is \u201cresponsibility of the legislator, but it is not only a matter of rules, it is also a matter of culture\u201d.
\nAs for the relationships with football and its institutions, the president of UCEI comments: \u201cWe are working on this, also in terms of rules that can be inserted in regulations and statutes. When we talk one-to-one with the clubs there is great willingness but then, very often, everything is referred back to the Federation, with which we are of course in touch. What I want to say is that the initiative during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is not enough, it can\u2019t be enough\u201d. Sometimes, adds Di Segni, \u201cit\u2019s impossible to respond with an immediate reaction\u201d. Effort \u201cis the right word. Yes well, it is interesting, let\u2019s see, but not always all of this produces a reaction and an intervention\u201d.
\nThe interview to La Gazzetta dello sport has been commented among others by the number one of Italian football Gabriele Gravina. \u201cThe boorish chants during the derby? They must be fought with forms of repression and campaigns of education, starting from families and schools. Apart from racial or territorial discrimination, this is a lacerating wound of our society\u201d. These are his words at the end of an event held in Rome. \u201cTogether with the president of UCEI we are creating collaborative pathways. Repressing, educating and especially preventing: this is the answer\u201d.<\/p>\n