Torino Coach Walter Mazzarri notes racism is “a social problem” but “you can’t punish a whole stadium because of a few people”.
Inter will play two games at San Siro behind closed doors after racist abuse aimed at Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly, and the Granata boss was asked about the issue in today’s Press conference.
“Certain behaviour must be firmly punished,” Mazzarri replied.
Torino Coach Walter Mazzarri notes racism is “a social problem” but “you can’t punish a whole stadium because of a few people”.
Inter will play two games at San Siro behind closed doors after racist abuse aimed at Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly, and the Granata boss was asked about the issue in today’s Press conference.
“Certain behaviour must be firmly punished,” Mazzarri replied.
“We must be totally intransigent when it comes racism. It’s a social problem, we need to start from primary schools, with teachers who must suspend children who show signs of intolerance.
“There’s also an economic aspect, because maybe some people go to the stadium to vent because of the problems they have.
“I think the rules are there, but they must be applied. In England, if someone dared to emit a monkey chant the steward would throw them out, but you can’t punish a whole stadium because of a few people.
“Matches should be halted at the first sign of these things, then the stewards should have more power to take these people out and take them to jail.
“I’m talking about certainty about the rules and the punishment: the referee must stop the game with the first racist chant.
“The people who do these things must no longer be allowed to enter the stadium.”
Talk then returned to matters on the pitch, where Toro face a Lazio side who have returned to form in recent matches.
“They’re a good overall team, they won well in Bologna which is a hard place to go. They have the platform of last year, when they fought for the Champions League until the last match.
“That’s their stated aim this season too, and we’ll need to be at our best to get a positive result.
“They’ve long been used to a European mentality, they’ve already played in the Europa League. We need to improve in terms of gaining that mentality.
“This is a difficult match we need to approach in the best way. That’s the big difference with the teams ahead of us.
“I’m curious to see whether my team is mature enough to go to their place and do what they did against Inter and Roma.”
It’s been a year since the Coach replaced Sinisa Mihajlovic, how does he judge his reign so far?
“There’s still one game to go,” Mazzarri pointed out.
“We’ve always said that assessments will be made after the first half of the season.This year's group was created with my ideas, that's where the new cycle started.
“In the first six months I got to know the situation and understood some things about the environment.
“Things are going well but we’ve dropped some points along the way – and not always because of ourselves.
“I don’t like to complain, but I’d say the team has always performed. I’d say we’ve had a couple of bad matches, against Parma and Napoli.
“For the rest we’ve always been good.”