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Arrigo Sacchi: "I'm not a racist, but..."

Former Italy soccer coach Arrigo Sacchi has found himself in hot water due to some controversial comments he recently made while speaking at an awards ceremony, where he said following:

"I'm certainly not racist and my history as a coach demonstrates that ... but look at the Viareggio [youth] tournament I would say that there are too many black players. Italy has no dignity, no pride. It should not be possible that our teams should have 15 foreign players in the squad."

After facing the inevitable backlash from his comments, Sacchi attempted to clarify his remarks by speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport and saying this:

"I have been misrepresented, how could I be racist?

I just said I saw a game featuring a team who fielded four coloured boys. My history speaks for itself, I always coached teams with different colours and I bought many, both at Milan and at Madrid.

I just wanted to point out that we are losing our national pride and identity."

I'm not sure which comment was worse, the original or the clarification attempt. What Sacchi essentially stated was this:

Original comment: "I'm certainly not racist, but there are too many black players."

Clarification attempt: "How could I be racist? I just said I saw a game featuring a team who had fielded four coloured boys."

Given the nature of that original comment and the lousy clarification attempt which followed it, expect Arrigo Sacchi to make the following statements and "clarifications" at some point in his life:

Original comment: "I'm certainly not sexist, but there are too many women working nowadays."

Clarification attempt: "How could I be sexist? I just said broads and bitches are making too much money."


Original comment: "I'm certainly not xenophobic, but there are way too many Muslims in the world."

Clarification attempt: "How could I be xenophobic? I just said most Muslims are funny-looking terrorists with names like Abdul Ahmad Rashad Muhammad Allah Qaeda Jazeera."


Original comment: "I'm certainly not homophobic, but gays kind of bother me."

Clarification attempt: "How could I be homophobic? I just said gays are sick, gross, icky, and will be condemned to hell when all is said and done."


Original comment: "I'm certainly not intelligent, but..."

No, no "but" is needed there; I think he got that right...

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/17/arrigo-sacchi-no-racist-too-many-blacks-youth-teams
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