This is a man whose words will regularly be in the news, regardless of what he says. He's one of those people who will always be in a spotlight.
Which begs the question, why would he then go and say THIS:
"I'm certainly not racist, as my past as a coach shows... but after seeing the Viareggio Cup (an Italian Youth squad tournament), I say that there are too many players of color- too many foreigners- even in the academy sides... Italy has no dignity, it has no pride. It's not possible to see squads with 15 foreign players."
Hold on, what?
Have you ever (except for the Russian coach who I talked about a while ago) heard a coach say something like that?
Sacchi has also had multiple black players on his teams in the past, including the teams that won him the trophies he is known for, which he brought up recently in various media outlets when asked about his comments.
“I have been misrepresented, do you really think I’m racist?"
Sorry, yes. I do. It's hard to misrepresent when you say there are "too many players of color" in Italian teams. Next quote?
"...I was just saying that I’d watched a match in which there was a team that included four boys of colour."
Well... why is that notable? Why does this need to be pointed out? Sure, if you think of "Italian," you may not think of someone with dark skin, but, I don't see why that needed to be talked about at all.
"My
history speaks for itself, I’ve always trained teams with diverse
players of colour and they won a lot, both at Milan and in Madrid... I
just wanted to underline the fact that we’re losing our national pride
and identity.”
So you have trained teams with diverse players. For one thing, that should show that this isn't an issue, because that's how training a team works. Teams will be diverse. The world is diverse. Why, if you have trained teams with diversity, are you saying that there is a problem with teams with diversity? Secondly, the fact that you have trained teams with diversity doesn't change the fact that what you said was blatantly racist. And, I don't see why that is a matter of Italian pride and identity.
I understand Italy has some issues. Someone I know who has been to Italy several times and knows many Italian people has said "There aren't black people in Italy. There might be one person with dark skin in a class of 30." So clearly there is a sort of "this is different" culture going on there.
But it's also close to Africa. And as I said before, diversity is a thing. The fact that someone who is well regarded in Italian soccer culture, and European soccer culture as a whole at that, is comfortable saying that there are too many colored players in the youth system. It appears that he's afraid of when all these youngsters will grow up and there will be more black players on the field.
It's a problem that is rooted in the culture, which this man coming out and saying what he said can be seen as the issue coming to a very public and noticeable head.
Can you imagine Bill Belichick or John Harbaugh saying, "Yeah, there are too many black people on these teams. It's shameful."
No. You can't. That's the difference. This may not be a post racial society here, but we have nothing like what Sacchi said. You run out of things to say and ways to describe it. But based on the way he talks about himself and what he said, there seems little chance that anything will be done, and a very high chance that we'll hear something like this again.
CITED:
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/17/football/football-italy-saachi-racism/
http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/news/english/129486/Sacchi-sparks-new-racism-storm-for-Italian-soccer.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/ex-italy-and-milan-boss-arrigo-sacchi-denies-racism-claims-1.2106931
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