Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has mocked new rules aimed at combating racism in football.
The Italian football federation (FIGC) said on Wednesday that players would be told to leave the pitch if two warnings over the public address failed to stop racist chanting during matches.
The move came after Kalidou Koulibaly, a Napoli player who was born in France to Senegalese parents, was subjected to monkey chants during a game against Inter Milan on Boxing Day. Three appeals were made over the PA system to stop the chants but the abuse continued throughout the match.
Under the new guidelines, matches will be paused after the first warning and players will converge in the middle of the pitch. Upon a second warning, players will return to the changing rooms and a security official will then decide whether to call off the game.
The FIGC’s president, Gabriele Gravina, said the move “simplified procedures by removing responsibility from the referee”. Procedures previously required the referee to briefly stop a match if racist chants were heard and to request a public announcement asking fans to stop.
But Salvini disparaged the move, saying: “Now we have a Richter scale for booing. Come on, don’t make us laugh.”
The FIGC also said on Wednesday it was investigating claims that a referee racially abused a Senegalese goalkeeper, Gueye Ass Dia, during a non-league game between Serino and Real Sarno. Serino players walked off in protest against the alleged abuse of their teammate.
In January, after a meeting of government and FIGC officials to address racism and violence at football matches, Salvini, an ardent AC Milan supporter, said he was against suspending games for racist chanting, arguing that it was a “slippery slope”.
But he pledged to root out violence after an Inter Milan fan died after clashes with Napoli supporters outside Milan’s San Siro stadium before the Boxing Day game.
Roberto Coramusi, the head of institutional relations at FIGC, told the Guardian the federation would not comment on Salvini’s latest remarks, but he said: “We act on behalf of our convictions but also our competencies. The referee must indicate any sign of racism, but in the end the decision to stop a game is always the responsibility of the security official, who works under the interior ministry.”
Raffaele Cantone, the chief of Italy’s anti-corruption agency, said the new rules were “wise”. “What happened to Koulibaly was scandalous. I’m convinced that if the referee calls players to the centre of the pitch, maybe [the racism] will stop. But you also need a burst of pride from the other spectators to show they have nothing to do with these idiots.”
Racism and hooliganism have long blighted Italian football. In recent years the Italy international Mario Balotelli has been a persistent target of abuse.
Italian football hooligans, knowns as ultras, tend to be well-organised, extremely violent and racist. Last year Daniele De Santis, a notorious ultra, was jailed for 16 years for the murder of a Napoli fan, Ciro Esposito, before the 2014 Italian Cup final game against Fiorentina.