In an exercise of moral nit-picking, Lazio’s Paolo Di Canio defended his stiff-armed salute with: “I am a fascist, not a racist.”

One would think that playing semantics with the media is not Di Canio’s forte. However, since he has returned to Italy from the Premiership, the 37-year-old has passionately identified with all things Lazio. He has supported the club since childhood and he chose to remember a part of its history- unpleasantly but not entirely inaccurately.

Many believe that Lazio was Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s club and therefore Fascist. But as renowned Italian football journalist Paddy Agnew tells us this belief is partially incorrect: “Legend says Lazio were a ‘Fascist’ club, closely linked to the Mussolini regime. This is partly true and partly misleading. Lazio were indeed run by Fascist soldier, General Giorgio Vaccaro. But he was more sportsman than soldier and for most part of the 1930s was in charge of both the Italian Football Federation and CONI, the Sports Ministry.” (World Soccer, November 2003)

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