Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo has defended his decision to move-on pitch microphones away from the stands in order to hide racist chanting during Italian top flight clashes.
Italian newspaper La Repubblica obtained a leaked recording of De Siervo telling representatives from different clubs that microphones will be switched off or shifted during games if racially-charged abuse is heard.
"I'll make a confession, we don't put it on record: I asked our directors to turn off the microphones towards the curve. I asked. So you won't hear it on TV," the league boss can be heard saying during a conversation back in September.
Di Siervo was asked to clarify his comments after being accused of 'whitewashing' the racism problem and not properly attempting to combat the issue.
But the Serie A boss defended his conversation, insisting he is simply trying to make coverage in the country better.
"In the audio, you hear only a fraction of the reasoning. We were talking about the television production and noting we are not journalists trying to find news, but rather producing a spectacle to be enjoyed and making the most appetising product," Di Siervo told La Repubblica.
"There are police, Lega Serie A inspectors and the Federation, as well as the referees, whose job it is to track and document incidents of racism.
"What we were doing was considering how TV coverage can best explain the beauty of Italian football. We do that continually and the basic idea is to avoid dwelling on ugly incidents.
"Therefore, we 'suspended' for two rounds the director who in Cagliari spent 40 seconds during a VAR check focused on the home fans who during that time had done all sorts of terrible things. In the same vein, we dropped the director who spent too long capturing the homage that the Inter fans had put up to Diabolik.
"This is not censorship! We are talking about how to get the best value out of a product. We’d just had to deal with that big article in the New York Times that called Italy the new front of racism in football."
ESPN journalist Gabriele Marcotti wasn't convinced by Di Siervo's attempt at clarifying his comments.
"Worst bit is that his "context" doesn't quite make things better. On bright side, audio obviously recorded by one of the club officials present... somebody gets it," he tweeted.
The Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC)'s prosecutor on Tuesday opened a probe into De Siervo's plan.
Mario Balotelli was subjected to racist abuse by Hellas Verona fans while playing for Brescia earlier this campaign.
While Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku has been the target of offensive chants on numerous occasions this season.
Blaise Matuidi, Moise Kean and Kalidou Koulibaly are other examples of players that have also suffered from racism during matches in the past 12 months.
