But, by any standards, the response is inadequate. Calcio's defenders usually argue that football merely reflects racism in society, which is where the cause and cure lie. They have a point. Racism has risen sharply since immigration sprinkled black and brown faces in what until 10 years ago had been an almost all-white population. Unemployment and crime are falling yet xenophobia spreads.
Opinion polls show the arrivals are blamed for crime, disease and poaching jobs.
Right-wing extremist groups have sprouted in many cities. On 13 May, the centre-right is expected to win a general election on a platform of cracking down on migration. The Northern League, part of the centre-right, now bashes illegal immigrants instead of southern Italians. Perhaps it is better to let them shout themselves out in stadiums than to prohibit them and find them cropping up again, ominously, in city streets,' said Giuliano Zincone, a Corrierre della Sera columnist. Enzo Bianco, the Interior Minister, thinks stadiums legitimise racism.