Euroscene: The least you can say about Paolo Di Canio is that he is a man of his word. In the wake of a major polemic prompted by his fascist salute at the end of Lazio's 2-1 defeat by Livorno 10 days ago, veteran Di Canio had promised he would do it again.

And do it again he did, just after being substituted midway through the second half of last Saturday night's 1-1 draw with Serie A leaders Juventus at the Olympic Stadium, Rome. Yesterday he was banned for one match and fined €10,000.

Lazio player Di Canio is not new to such gestures. He did a similar straight arm "Roman Salute" at the end of a Rome derby last January, eventually being fined another €10,000 by the football federation.

Di Canio, an unrepentant fascist with the word "Dux" (Il Duce Mussolini) tattooed onto his arm, explained last week: "I have huge admiration for a great leader (Mussolini) who in a particular historical context, if nothing else, was able to restore a sense of national pride . . . I cannot stop myself saluting the fans that way . . . it's about expressing a sense of belonging to my people. At Livorno, I had to put up with awful insults about me, my mother and my family but, proud and determined, I still went out and played, and played well. I'm proud to be part of the Lazio people, when you have true values, you're always in the right."

To be fair to Di Canio, the Livorno-Lazio game needs to be put into its "political" context. A majority of Livorno fans make no secret of their left-wing leanings, whilst the right-wing, if not to say Fascist tendencies of a section of the Lazio fans, is well documented.

In that context, when the Lazio team bus arrived at the Livorno stadium, it was "attacked" by a smoke flare-cum-firework which crashed into the side of the bus, causing apprehension but no injury.

Di Canio regularly pointed out last week that Italian media coverage of the match had made much of his Fascist salute and carefully played down the significance of the attack on the Lazio bus. Aware his salute had prompted protests from Rome's Jewish community, however, Di Canio then went on: "If a fine was to be imposed (on me) because one particular community was enraged, that would be very dangerous . . . If we're now in the hands of the Jewish community, then it's the end."

All of which prompted Jewish community leader Amos Luzzatto to comment: "From bad to worse - what is worse than Di Canio's original gesture is the implication of his comment, namely that the Jewish community has occult powers."

The Di Canio episode did not escape the eagle eye of Fifa president Sepp Blatter who, whilst admitting he did not know the full details, warned that players could be banned for such behaviour. Not daunted, however, the bauld Di Canio did it again.

All of which leaves us with one reflection. Just yards away from the terraces where the Roma and Lazio fans stand every Sunday at Olympic Stadium, there are metres and metres of splendid marble mosaics as well as an imposing obelisk all proclaiming Mussolini "Dux" (Il Duce), Mussolini the great leader and Mussolini's Roman Empire. If you knew nothing about your history, you would conclude this old Mussolini guy had simply been another important figure in recent Italian history, just like Garibaldi, Cavour and King Vittorio Emanuele were important figures in the unification of Italy.

Nowhere on the marble mosaics does it say Mussolini introduced racial laws in 1938, based on those already introduced by Hitler in Nazi Germany, which effectively banned Jews from public office of any kind, excluded them from the medical, legal and teaching professions and even banned them from owning a radio.

Nowhere on the marble mosaics does it say Mussolini entered into a disastrous pact to go to war alongside Hitler's Germany. Nowhere on the mosaics, does it tell the story of the thousands of Italians, opponents of Mussolini, who were imprisoned, tortured or sent into exile.

Nor do the mosaics tell of the 1,200 Italian war criminals who by 1945 were wanted in relation to the hundreds of thousands killed (sometimes with mustard gas) by Mussolini's troops in Ethiopia, Libya and the Balkans.

Nor do the mosaics tell of the 6,800 Italian Jews that the Mussolini regime, directly or indirectly, sent to their deaths in concentration camps.

Perhaps Paolo Di Canio (and many of his compatriots) should learn their own country's history before indulging in an apologia for Mussolini and his fascism.