Sacchi: Too many blacks in Italian youth teams

He might not be racist but i fail too understand how such big personalities can use such poor choice of words every other week.

I understand he wants more Italians but if the current crop of young Italians is shit then teams will look outside the country for youth.

This is assuming that these players have no connection with Italy not players like Balotelli.

jibers wrote:

farfan wrote:you agree 100 % that   italian born & raised players who are black should be excluded from Italy's national team / youth systems ?

Let me ask you this, do you think Italians who are Italian by heritage (born there and family have been Italians for generations) would be happy if they fielded an xi of black players?

If they aren't happy with it does that make them racist?

As long as you agree Klose, Podolski should never play for Germany. Nasri, Benzema etc should never play for France,

Im cool with your posts.

Sacchi was a great coach once upon a time. What a stupid thing to say.

Former Coach Arrigo Sacchi admits he was ‘careless’ in causing his racism row, but hits back at FIFA President Sepp Blatter and anti-racist ‘populism’.

The pundit's barb that there are ‘too many black players’ in Italian youth academies was met with outrage by the sports community, not least Blatter's criticism that ‘pride and dignity are not a matter of skin-colour’.

Speaking to Mediaset Premium today, Sacchi attempted to clarify his position and said he was surprised by the reaction.

“I am amazed, but not as much as you may think,” the former Italy boss commented.

“I know only too well that in this environment populism is par for the course, and that there is no memory of history.

“I've been in football for 42 years, and over these 42 years no-one ever accused me of being racist.

“I don't think I became one at the age of 68.

“I coached and am friends with many black players. I'm not so stupid or obtuse.

“I was perhaps careless, among other things because I thought nobody could ever call me a racist.”

Sacchi then went on in an attempt to clarify what his intended statement was.

“I was just explaining the problems of Italian football.

“Among the most serious is the excess of foreign players in Italy. They can't be more than a few, and of high quality.

“I was explaining how in other countries there's a different kind of pride, for instance in Spain, where people in Madrid complain if Spaniards don't get playing time.

“There's a business here in Italy, but it's a very dangerous one.

“People make money over the skin of young players, especially those who come from poor countries with great expectations.

“Many are purchased without even being scouted.

“I said that many foreigners are playing and on that day I saw four, five black kids on the pitch.

“I didn't think that was racism. Today, in Italy and abroad, just mentioning 'black' or 'colour' has everyone off their leash.

“If I'd used the word 'foreigners' nobody would have said a thing.

“Instead we get all the moralists and the politically correct, people I won't deign with a response because the whole world knows their story, much like the whole world knows my story.

“I'm sorry that there's no memory of our history at all.

“If I haven't been able to explain myself in 42 years, then I'll have to spend another 20 hoping they understand what I'm like.”

I can understand his sentiment, but there's a big difference between saying "blacks" and saying "foreigners" - and Sacchi should be wise enough to know that difference.

marottalad wrote:Honestly..... black people are usually better athletes then white people

Sacchi, is that you?

jibers wrote:So if Italy's whole XI was 100% black players nobody would find it weird?

I would find it pretty weird that in a nation of roughly 60 million with like 5% black people the best 11 football players happen to be black, but besides that, no.

Lex wrote:

marottalad wrote:Honestly..... black people are usually better athletes then white people

Sacchi, is that you?

So, black people are better athletes then white people and yet Sacchi only saw 4 black out of the 22 of the pitch, 14 in the bench, 4 out of 36. And that's an unpreceded high.

There are too few blacks in italian youth team.

he just see things in color & dont think they are italian enough, there's unnecessary to spin this since it's obvious

tbh, not that big deal thou, they still get in the team right? it's not like they get rejected due to their skin color.
no doubt, feeling of that 4 players had been hurt.

People do realize that Italy is a country, being Italian is a nationality... and it has nothing to do with color. You can be white, green, yellow, purple, black, etc. and still be Italian. To boot, you don't need to be born in Italy. You can become a naturalized Italian.

In what world is it ok to say that there should be less "blacks" or "foreigners" on youth teams??? Just because they hold dual- citizenship, are they not Italian too?

Seems like far right ideology to me...

If he said "less foreigners" and meant that he only wants people who were naturalized as kids playing for them, I'd probably be okay with it.

But with "foreigners" such people usually mean "would've looked foreign 100 years ago"

The worst thing is that Carlo Tavecchio said a very similar thing at the speech to promote his nomination before the Italian FA's president election and still got elected anyway. Actually, he said "banana eaters" instead of black.

sacchi was being a racist fact, i'm not buying that wrong choice of words stuff, he spoke his thoughts completely, cause he felt he wouldn't be accused of being a racist.

he clearly has a a problem with seeing black players in a italian jersey period, doesn't matter if they were born there or not, if he had a problem with foreigners he would've said foreigners.

maybe light skin foreigners are easier to pass off as genuine italians for him, and blacks screams import, i kinda want to believe that what he is trying to convey, still racist but i can live with that level

VivaStPauli wrote:

jibers wrote:So if Italy's whole XI was 100% black players nobody would find it weird?

I would find it pretty weird that in a nation of roughly 60 million with like 5% black people the best 11 football players happen to be black, but besides that, no.

sportsczy wrote:People do realize that Italy is a country, being Italian is a nationality... and it has nothing to do with color. You can be white, green, yellow, purple, black, etc. and still be Italian. To boot, you don't need to be born in Italy. You can become a naturalized Italian.

In what world is it ok to say that there should be less "blacks" or "foreigners" on youth teams??? Just because they hold dual- citizenship, are they not Italian too?

Seems like far right ideology to me...

There have been many sensible posts in the thread but I'll just pick out two of the more recent ones.

A million times this.

Also I don't want to go off topic but regarding sexism in Italy, I disagree with Robes' assertion that TV in Italy has greatly improved and isn't any worse than other places in Europe. It's gotten better perhaps but the culture is still an absolute disgrace.

http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/02/19/news/la_consigliera_lombarda_baldini_ex_lista_maroni_gli_immigrati_danneggiano_la_bellezza_dell_italia-107721277/

Suffice to say there is a sizable amount of Italians who don't want immigrants in Italy if people like this are getting elected.

There obviously remains significant political support for such ideas in all societies, that's not in dispute. It's a particularly strongly felt issue in Southern Europe obviously but it's irrelevant when considering whether or not Sacchi's comments were appropriate or not. They clearly were not.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/02/19/news/la_consigliera_lombarda_baldini_ex_lista_maroni_gli_immigrati_danneggiano_la_bellezza_dell_italia-107721277/

Suffice to say there is a sizable amount of Italians who don't want immigrants in Italy if people like this are getting elected.

we are talking about a regional Councilor of Lombardia, so at the maximum it has to do with sizable amount of Lombards , not Italians overall.

On the other hand her party , Lega Nord, has electorate just in North Italy, hardly Southern Italians can vote a party who said Neapolitans stink and bad thingd about Southerns
The fact is that Lega Nord turned from secessionist position to ultranationalist position under Salvini , because Salvini new Lega Nord leader realized it was more convenient to exploit popular discontent with themes as immigration more than Roma steals money to North and he placed also on positions close to Le Pen as the battle anti Euro . So it represents the only relevant  radical right-wing populism ( position assumed under Salvini) .  But we talk always about a party who gets not over 6% , because it will be always ingrained in Northen electorate, Southerns aren't so stupid to vote a party who insulted them for years etc

This is the point. in Italy neofascist parties exist, Forza Nuova and Fiamma Tricolore, but both  never touch 1 %    If I create a party tomorrow, I have hopes to get similar votes tthan both or getting better..
Lega Nord,  less extremist, anoother "culture" but radical right-wing populism , gets 6 %

Basically Italians don't care about them .
Contrarily in Europe in   nations  rated as less racist the  Neonazi parties  ( or radical right wing ) get even 20 %

This is another witness there is no a racist drift in Italy.
It is a common problem everywhere but in Italy is not surely more than others.
i wouldn't have problem to say something of bad about my country , I can do it for many things, but   not for racism .

I think that any kid playing for the U18 or above youth teams should be barred from playing for any other country for 5 years. So if after 5 years they don't get called up by the senior side, they're free to choose another NT if they're dual citizens.

I do agree that there are a lot of kids who take advantage of a country's youth system knowing full well that they will play for another NT when the time comes... it's a problem in France. Such a law would at least weed these kids out early on in the process.

Actually, he is right, we need more Italian players. He didn't mean 'black' as in black. He meant foreigners more or less.

salmano9 wrote:Actually, he is right, we need more Italian players. He didn't mean 'black' as in black. He meant foreigners more or less.

Why didn't he say that, then?

VivaStPauli wrote:

salmano9 wrote:Actually, he is right, we need more Italian players. He didn't mean 'black' as in black. He meant foreigners more or less.

Why didn't he say that, then?

He was trying to make his idea clear by making it general or common. (most foreigners in the team come from Africa, ex. Okaka, Balotelli, etc..

salmano9 wrote:He was trying to make his idea clear by making it general or common. (most foreigners in the team come from Africa, ex. Okaka, Balotelli, etc..

Last I checked, Mario Balotelli was a full Italian citizen and played for the Italian NT and thus he is not a foreigner, or did I miss something?

salmano9 wrote:Actually, he is right, we need more Italian players. He didn't mean 'black' as in black. He meant foreigners more or less.

right about what? your italian u21 team is 100 percent italian, there are no "black" players or foreigners on that team. he saw maybe two or three clubs with 3 or 4 black players and spewed rubbish.... 3 or 4 black players (who aren't from italy) in a couple of YOUTH clubs isn't enough to make the such an assumption.

out of all the 36 players that have been selected to the national team in the past year, 31 have been born in italy. that's well over 80 percent, and whether people like it or not, ogbonna and balotelli are more italian than osvaldo, paletta, and maybe even caldeira, not to mention thiago motta who even played for brazil u23 (but of course, people like sacchi don't have an issue with those, despite none of those players even playing in any italian youth set ups)

titosantill wrote:whether people like it or not, ogbonna and balotelli are more italian than osvaldo, paletta, and maybe even caldeira, not to mention thiago motta who even played for brazil u23 (but of course, people like sacchi don't have an issue with those, despite none of those players even playing in any italian youth set ups)

A million times this.

To be fair, the Viareggio Cup is not a NT competition but a club one. So it's not like all black players were Italian nationals. Some might have been, though. Balotelli, btw, was not Italian until he was 18.

Not that I'm defending him, even if he meant 'foreigners' the way he went about saying that and reaching that conclusion was completely wrong.

Well, you know, I would have been all for it if Balotelli wouldn't have been Italian as then he wouldn't have been able to score two goals for the Italian NT against Germany