Day Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Former AC Milan and Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi has denied he is racist after claiming Italy's youth set-up features "too many blacks".Sacchi, 68, criticised the number of "foreigners" in the lower leagues at an awards ceremony.According to Italian media reports, Sacchi said: "In our youth sector there are too many blacks."He later clarified: "I just wanted to underline the fact that we're losing our national pride and identity."Sacchi attended the Viareggio Tournament this month, which is regarded as the most prestigious youth tournament in Italy.He is reported as saying at Maestrelli awards ceremony in Tuscany on Monday: "I'm not racist and my history as a coach shows that, but watching at the Viareggio Cup makes me think there are too many coloured players."Business interests now come first. Italy has no dignity, it has no pride: you shouldn't have squads including 15 foreigners."Sacchi, who won back-to-back European Cups with Milan in 1989 and 1990 with a team featuring Dutch attacking trio Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten.When asked to clarify his comments by La Gazzetta dello Sport later on Monday night, Sacchi said: "I have been misrepresented, do you really think I'm racist?"I was just saying that I'd watched a match in which there was a team that included four coloured boys. My history speaks for itself, I've always trained teams with diverse coloured players and they won a lot, both at Milan and in Madrid.Sacchi was Italy coach when they were World Cup runners-up in 1994. His last role in the game came as director of football at Real Madrid 10 years ago.In October, the president of the Italian football federation, Carlo Tavecchio, was banned for six months by Uefa for making racist remarks.The 71-year-old apologised after referring to "banana eaters" when discussing foreign players during his election campaign in July.Inter Milan were fined 50,000 euros in February 2013 after their fans were found guilty of racially abusing former Inter striker Mario Balotelli in a derby against AC Milan.Two months later, AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng walked off the pitch against Italian team Pro Patria after he was racially abused by their fans.http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31500131 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TigerTedd Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Hmm, the only way that's nor racist is if he's been mis translated and the Italian word for black is very similar to the Italian word for gay. Then Hess be saying, 'there are too many gays in youth football', which is fair enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaffsRam Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 He considers 4 players out of 22 as being "too many blacks"? No, not racist at all..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanRam Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 He's a racist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimmu Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Was there any talk about stepovers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostyn6 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 not this again! YES, he's racist. BUT he was also taught to be racist. When he was a kid, the things he's saying now were not offensive. When we are 71, things we are being told/taught are common will be offensive. I was encouraged to wear a tea-cosy on my head when I was about 6 years old, doing a silly dance saying "bud bud ding ding", I didn't know any different, and it would be definitely racist right now, the ironic thing is, my gran is black, and her sister, who was over from Zimbabwe at the time, also black, found it hilarious and made me do it loads of times. I wouldn't dream of encouraging a kid to do that now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLACML Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 While his comments are racist, I don't think he is. Ask Rijkaard and Gullit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gypsy Ram Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 not this again! YES, he's racist. BUT he was also taught to be racist. When he was a kid, the things he's saying now were not offensive. When we are 71, things we are being told/taught are common will be offensive. I was encouraged to wear a tea-cosy on my head when I was about 6 years old, doing a silly dance saying "bud bud ding ding", I didn't know any different, and it would be definitely racist right now, the ironic thing is, my gran is black, and her sister, who was over from Zimbabwe at the time, also black, found it hilarious and made me do it loads of times. I wouldn't dream of encouraging a kid to do that now. I would, but I would teach them to say: dirka Dirka mohammed jihad. I'll get my coat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Sorry but what on earth is bud bud ding ding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Day Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 not this again! YES, he's racist. BUT he was also taught to be racist. When he was a kid, the things he's saying now were not offensive. When we are 71, things we are being told/taught are common will be offensive. I was encouraged to wear a tea-cosy on my head when I was about 6 years old, doing a silly dance saying "bud bud ding ding", I didn't know any different, and it would be definitely racist right now, the ironic thing is, my gran is black, and her sister, who was over from Zimbabwe at the time, also black, found it hilarious and made me do it loads of times. I wouldn't dream of encouraging a kid to do that now. What's the cut off age where we say racism is acceptable because they grew up with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaffsRam Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 It's also a cultural thing. Suarez can quite legitimately say what he wants about blacks because "that's how it goes down in Uruguay".... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robglosta Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Sergio Giorgini? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostyn6 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 What's the cut off age where we say racism is acceptable because they grew up with it? I never said it is acceptable. Just a bit expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariotofmyown Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 not this again! YES, he's racist. BUT he was also taught to be racist. When he was a kid, the things he's saying now were not offensive. When we are 71, things we are being told/taught are common will be offensive. I was encouraged to wear a tea-cosy on my head when I was about 6 years old, doing a silly dance saying "bud bud ding ding", I didn't know any different, and it would be definitely racist right now, the ironic thing is, my gran is black, and her sister, who was over from Zimbabwe at the time, also black, found it hilarious and made me do it loads of times. I wouldn't dream of encouraging a kid to do that now. Not sure your point means anything here. If he had just been talking about foreigners, he could have a genuine non-racist point that the Italian team could suffer cos the are so many non-Italian kids taking the place of Italians. But he actually seems to be saying that Blacks aren't Italians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ariotofmyown Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 What's the cut off age where we say racism is acceptable because they grew up with it? It depends on the economic situation. If the country seems to be doing ok, then all forms of racism are vile. If the country is in trouble, then it's all the fault of the islams/dark people/eastern europeans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cisse Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I understand Mr. Sacchi very well. A lot of my friends and me too think that there are too many "foreigners" in our National football team. We have nothing against those players and wish them well in their careers in the National team and their own clubs. But the fact is that we would like all the players born and raised in Finland. Somehow for a National team it would feel more appropriate. I'm not so sure that he dislikes black people or any other race. It is just so popular these days to blame everybody to be racist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaverRam Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I understand Mr. Sacchi very well. A lot of my friends and me too think that there are too many "foreigners" in our National football team. We have nothing against those players and wish them well in their careers in the National team and their own clubs. But the fact is that we would like all the players born and raised in Finland. Somehow for a National team it would feel more appropriate. I'm not so sure that he dislikes black people or any other race. It is just so popular these days to blame everybody to be racist. Reminds me of Sarah Palin's latest nonsensical rant: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLACML Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I understand Mr. Sacchi very well. A lot of my friends and me too think that there are too many "foreigners" in our National football team. We have nothing against those players and wish them well in their careers in the National team and their own clubs. But the fact is that we would like all the players born and raised in Finland. Somehow for a National team it would feel more appropriate. I'm not so sure that he dislikes black people or any other race. It is just so popular these days to blame everybody to be racist. I just checked the latest Finland squad and there's two players in there that weren't born in Finland. Zeneli appears to have been playing in Finland his whole career (probably means he was raised there) and Hr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cisse Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 There was a time we had both Yeremenko brothers and both Hetemaj brothers and some others which caused some Italian player I thinkt it was Gattuso to say that luckily Italy National team wasn't something like Finland who brings players in all around the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLACML Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 There was a time we had both Yeremenko brothers and both Hetemaj brothers and some others which caused some Italian player I thinkt it was Gattuso to say that luckily Italy National team wasn't something like Finland who brings players in all around the world. That's not the same thing as Sacchi is saying though. As ariotofmyown said, he appears to be saying that you can't be black and Italian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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