Di Canio cross with Italy’s Resistance Partisans’ Association (ANPI)

In a statement issued by the former footballer’s solicitor Gabriele Bordoni, Paolo Di Canio says the cancellation of his Q&A event with supporters at Glasgow’s Hilton scheduled for September 6 was “exploited” by the ANPI’s Brescia branch.

The former Lazio forward — who played for Celtic in 1996–1997 — has apparently taken umbrage with us over a post we published on our Facebook page last August 26, in which we linked and commented this Evening Times article.

In his statement, Di Canio writes that the scrapping of the September 6 supporter event “was explained by the organisers as being totally independent” from their will, adding that it was then “exploited” by Brescia’s Partisans’ Association.

Di Canio goes on to stress to have already “clarified in a frank, loyal and mature way any past behaviour and my current way of thinking. I am, however, disappointed to see obvious untruths being expressed on that team’s [Celtic] supporters,” before adding that he doesn’t mean to respond to what he called the “latest unjustified, harmful media attack.”

In our August 26 Facebook post, we wrote that “The organisers did not go into details. However, from what emerges from the social media, the cancellation of the event follows the negative reaction on the part of several football fans for the admiration, often expressed by Di Canio through statements, gestures and on tattoos, for Mussolini and for fascism.”