<a href="http://www.soccernet.com/columns/2000/1019/20001019featspeck.html" target="_blank">The ugly face of Italian football</a>
Sven Goran Eriksson is one of world football's diplomats. Polite to the opposition, never critical of his own players and loathe to start rows.
So, when a man as mild-mannered as him rounds on the racist boors who wear the Lazio colours and admits he is ashamed to be associated with them, you know that something must have got under his skin.
Skin, or the colour of it, was the problem. It was the neo-fascist element among Lazio supporters with their mindless heckling of black players who made the silver-haired, bespectacled Swede crack.
When they unfurled a banner in homage to the former neo-Nazi Serbian commander Arkan, Eriksson proposed a solution every bit as radical as the catholic Maurice Johnston crossing Glasgow's sectarian divide to play for Rangers in the 1980s.
'It could be right for Lazio to buy a black player because it would be more difficult for these supporters to boo one of their own,' said Eriksson. 'As long as he is a good player and worth his place at the club, of course.
'I have to say this because I'm against every kind of racist discrimination. It has no place for me and it has no place at this club.'
If Eriksson had ever cast a covetous glance towards Patrick Vieira, the disgraceful treatment of the Arsenal midfielder in Tuesday's Champions League match at the Stadio Olimpico will have killed any hope of the Frenchman considering Rome as his next stoppingoff point after North London.
Lazio have had black players before - notably, Holland international Aron Winter - yet the hard core among the club's support has always suffered rather than welcomed their presence in the light blue shirt.
Also consider, for example, last month's events at Roma - their cross-city rivals. When their team was knocked out of the Italian Cup by Atalanta, a group of incensed fans stormed into the club's training ground, vandalising players' cars. They even hurled vile racist abuse at Roma's four Brazilian players - Cafu, Assuncao, Aldair and Emerson.
Lazio has unwanted links with the extreme right faction of the Alleanze Nazionale - the former fascist-turned-conservative party which commands around 35 per cent of the vote in Rome elections.
That number may be relatively small, around 4,000, but it is racist, extremely violent and it has a ready-made audience in the Stadio Olimpico, with photographers and television cameras able to capture its message and spread it around Italy.
At last season's Rome derby, the notorious supporters group - the Irriducibili Ultras - unfurled a 50-metre banner around Lazio's Curva Nord section of the stadium. It read: 'Auschwitz is your town, the ovens are your houses.'
If the public outcry stopped short of direct city or governmental action, the tribute to the assassinated Arkan in February this year provoked a response.
'In honour of Arkan the Tiger, one of us,' it screamed to the watching world about a man who had conscripted many of Red Star Belgrade's most subversive fans and led them in committing atrocities in the Balkan conflict.
The wrath of the Italian Government came down on Lazio, who were ordered to confiscate offensive banners at the entrance to future matches and the club issued statements decrying the behaviour of the few.
Sinisa Mihajlovic, the Serb accused by Patrick Vieira of racist abuse yesterday, has unveiled anti-Nato T-shirts and dedicated goals and victories to Arkan, whom he had unashamedly described as a friend in the past.
Yesterday the Yugoslavia international sought to distance himself from the row. He said: 'I'm not apologising, I have no regrets and I certainly don't consider myself a racist. I wasn't offending black people, I was offending Vieira. If I am a racist then so is he.
'He called me a gypsy, but I don't care what he says. Being called a gypsy is not an insult. I know I'm a gypsy and I'm proud of it.
'I don't care if people twist my words. I have the balls to come out and admit to what I did and to explain myself. It would have been much easier to just deny everything.'
Such talk will no doubt appeal to the Irriducibili Ultras. Their Arkan banner appalled Mihajlovic's Croat former teammate at Lazio, Alen Boksic. The player, now with Middlesbrough, said: 'If I'd been playing, I would have taken off my shirt and left the pitch in protest.'
Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti was anxious yesterday to deflect the racist slurs being heaped upon his club. He issued a statement which read: 'I don't want this kind of fan at our club. We will do everything possible to get rid of them and keep them away from the stadium. It's a big problem for the international image of Lazio.
'To build a football team, professionals are needed...people who can make important contributions independently of the colour of their skin. If the coach needs someone he calls him on technical ability, not on grounds of colour.'
Cragnotti's aim was clear. His club is already threatened with possible UEFA censure over the missiles which rained down from the stands upon the Arsenal team as they left the pitch following Tuesday's 1-1 draw and the fracas at the end of the match which was witnessed at close quarters by referee Hellmut Krug.
Now the image of his nouveau-riche gatecrashers to the European top table has been so tarnished that it will follow the club throughout Europe, perhaps even back to these shores, to Leeds or Manchester, in the later stages of this season's Champions League.
In the aftermath of the Arkan banner, Feyenoord coach Leo Beenhaaker threatened to order his team from the pitch if any of his black players were subjected to racial abuse. 'It would be right for the referee to stop the game in such circumstances and for my players to come off,' he said.
Eriksson's position, in spite of last season's Serie A triumph, isn't strong enough at Lazio to be able to issue a similar threat on behalf of visiting teams. Signing a black player might hurt Lazio's racists more.
