AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani criticized the imposition of stadium bans in Italy's Serie A after fan racism resurfaced in the country's top flight.

Italian soccer's long-standing problem reappeared last weekend when visiting Milan fans reportedly targeted two of Juventus's black players, Frenchman Paul Pogba and Ghanaian Kwadwo Asamoah, with racist chanting.

Milan went on to lose 3-2 and the Rossoneri's woes - they are 12th, 13 points behind leader Roma - deepened when disciplinary officials slapped a one-match stadium ban on the club.

In accordance with UEFA rules which have been adopted and interpreted by the Italian soccer federation, Milan will now play its next game, against Udinese in a little under two weeks, behind closed doors.

The sanction, handed down after the chanting was deemed by FIGC disciplinary chiefs to fall under "territorial discrimination", has been employed under various guises this season.

Roma and Lazio, as well as Inter and Milan, have been forced to close sections of their grounds following similar incidents.

Milan was at the center of a racism storm last season involving former forward Kevin-Prince Boateng, who walked off the pitch while being subjected to abuse during a friendly against a lower league side.

But Galliani, whose club has several black players on its books - including Ghanaian Sulley Muntari and Italy striker Mario Balotelli - called on the authorities to find an alternative sanction.

"I'm fully aware that racism is a major problem, it's a worldwide one," Galliani said. "But territorial discrimination is something different.

"We need to abolish the rule. Even all the (club) presidents agree on that and I've called (FIGC president) Giancarlo Abete to tell him that."

Galliani is not alone in criticizing the law. Milan was also punished for its fans chanting anti Napoli chants, something considered quite normal for fans all round the world to have a go at their rivals.

Hard-core Inter Milan fans later on Tuesday went further than Galliani and even asked their rivals from AC Milan, as well as other Serie A sides, to join with them in a day of action, making chants which would result in punishments that would see all stadia hosting matches without any spectators.

Galliani claimed the alleged incident involving Milan fans with the Juventus duo had been blown out of proportion and the FIGC's stance would only hit embattled Italian soccer harder.

"No one even heard the chants. No television channels or newspapers wrote about it. I was at the stadium and all I could hear were chants targeting Mario Balotelli," he said.

"I don't understand why Italy is the only one (league) applying this rule. Why close stadiums when they are already empty?"

Since the Boateng incident last year, several clubs have launched offensives to combat racism from within their own fan base. However, in some clubs, the message is not getting through.

Days after the drowning of hundreds of migrants off the coast of Lampedusa, the notorious fans of promoted Verona were heard singing during the minute's silence observed by all clubs before kickoff away to Bologna.

Italian soccer's ills, nevertheless, are being played out against a political backdrop in which overt racism has become the norm.

The country's only black minister, Cecilia Kyenge, has been subjected to racist abuse on several occasions by fellow politicians. One senator from the nationalist Northern League, Roberto Calderoli, compared her to an orang utan.

While top players in Serie A regularly hit out at racist fans, Italy's national coach, Cesare Prandelli, says only a cultural shift among the population would change its behavior.

Claiming he does not "believe Italy is a racist country", Prandelli said: "People have to speak out when a national anthem is jeered or when they hear other people being racist."

(China Daily 10/10/2013 page23)