The new Sunderland manager has reignited a debate over personal beliefs in the workplace, says Robert Jeffery
It’s fair to say the owners of Sunderland AFC didn’t foresee a political storm when they appointed as their new manager Paolo Di Canio, the firebrand former striker best known for pushing over a referee during a playing career bedeviled in equal measure by bursts of brilliance and cartoon rambunctiousness. The club’s initial press release spoke of a manager who was “passionate, driven and raring to get started”. There were some who felt the Italian’s relative inexperience might be a handicap, but most had forgotten a far greater impediment – that Di Canio had given fascist salutes while playing for his hometown club Lazio and openly admitted being a fascist.
David Milliband stood down as the club’s non-executive director when Di Canio was appointed. Thousands have signed petitions against him, and local war veterans are threatening to boycott matches. You can question why none of this stopped him previously managing the less illustrious Swindon Town (the GMB union did withdraw its sponsorship at the time) but the row illustrates again the impossibility of separating personal principles from professional practice.
The nuances of Di Canio’s belief system are worth examining. He is, he says, “a fascist, not a racist” but, while it’s true they are separate disciplines, one does generally lead to an appreciation of the other. The distinction is not something many people would care to probe or defend, in any case. What we can ask is whether it should matter.
If Di Canio is not racist, and will not be exercising racist policies in his team selection, it’s unclear how his fascism will manifest itself in Premiership management. It’s unlikely any of the Sunderland first team will have sufficient knowledge of progressive utilization theory to be dropped for denouncing the finer points of his thinking. Had the club recruited in an open process – not that football works that way – would it have had grounds to reject his application? At the same time, Di Canio is customer-facing, and in football customers tend to be trapped by lifelong allegiances. He represents the club in the community and by choosing to express his political views in public has inextricably linked them to his employment. Should Sunderland in future attempt to sign a Jewish player, no right-minded person could expect him not to be affronted by their choice of leader.
In People Management we have written recently about religion in the workplace, and the awkward intersection between strident religious views and others’ lifestyle choices. Fascism takes things to another level, and the law is unclear – high profile cases have established that it is acceptable to remove a BNP member from a role as a teacher, but not as a bus driver transporting Asian passengers (or at least without offering suitable alternative employment).
You can point out that former England manager Fabio Capello was barely chided for his professed admiration of General Franco or suggest that Di Canio’s appointment undermines grass roots efforts to remove the far right from the game. But at the very least, by failing to anticipate any of this might be a problem, Sunderland have proved once again that simply appointing the best person for the job is never enough.