Mask of sufferance removed

As Patrick Vieira would no doubt confirm, you do not forget your first encounter with Sinisa Mihajlovic. Vieira left the Olympic Stadium in Rome last Tuesday evening saying that throughout Arsenal's game with Lazio Mihajlovic had repeatedly called him: "A fucking black monkey." Mihajlovic has half-denied this since, lending Vieira's claims credibility, but the sense of veracity also lies in the fact that Vieira is a fairly unforthcoming talker. You would imagine it takes quite a bit of racist abuse to provoke the man from Senegal to speak out.

"I feel I have to," said Vieira, "because something must be done. You have to tell the truth. It cannot go on like this. Whether you are black, white or yellow, things like this should not go on in the year 2000. In Rome it was non-stop, Mihajlovic was laughing all through the game making a monkey face at me.

"I said to the Lazio players: `Can you hear what he is saying to me?" They just shrugged and said: "He is stupid, he is always like that.' They apologised."

The words bear repetition because when was the last time you heard such a personal account from a black footballer who has experienced racism? Not from Andy as-he-was-then Cole six months ago when he was the focus for sustained monkey chanting from Real Madrid's fans in the Bernabeu; not from Emile Heskey when he was the victim of audible racist abuse on television during an England under-21 match against Yugoslavia in May; nor from Ade Akinbiyi or Andrew Impey when they were targeted by Red Star Belgrade followers during the recent game with Leicester.

All suffered. Now Vieira has spoken up and the mask of sufferance has been removed. Vieira has done us all a massive favour bringing the hate in football that dares to speak its name - insidiously - to the fore.

UEFA announced on Friday that Mihajlovic will be banned for two matches because of his vicious activity - big deal - and the Italian FA has pledged to take action - though they should not be lauded until they actually do. Lazio, themselves, were forced into a quasi apology that referred to "the mocking chorus of a few hundred imbeciles," as if the majority of Lazio fans were the salt of the earth Romans.

Lazio know different. Lazio is not just a club with history, Lazio is a club with a past. One has to look back only to last year to get a flavour of the atmosphere surrounding Lazio. At a game a banner was unfurled proclaiming the greatness of the Serbian warlord, racist and mass-killer Arkan. Another said: "Niggers go home."

One Italian politician was so moved by the pro-Serbian banner gesture that she said: "Honour to the fans, now I'm a Lazio fan as well." No wonder the Serb extremist Mihajlovic feels at home. Alen Boksic, then a Lazio player and Croatian, saw it rather differently: "I take this personally." He left in the summer for Middlesbrough.

The Boro may lack certain of Rome's charms but then it also lacks its politicians. The female in question was Alessandra Mussolini; Middlesbrough's closest is Mo Mowlam. Mussolini is the granddaughter of Benito, fascist dictator of Italy and a man who turned up at Lazio games. Charmers, the pair of them.

The idea, therefore, that Lazio does not have a right-wing element is as fanciful as Leeds United saying they don't have a hooligan problem and presumably only God knows what the Pope was doing receiving a Lazio shirt with his name on the back last weekend. Lazio must be his local team.

It was not reported if sinister Sinisa handed the jersey over himself. But, despite his pathetic punishment, Mihajlovic remains a key figure for the Italian champions and there he was again yesterday, unrepentant and smiling as Lazio played in Verona. His manager Sven Goran Eriksson is a devotee of Tibetan poetry so maybe Mihajlovic has been shown some compassion by the Swede who so entices the English FA.

Or maybe Eriksson has taken a more pragmatic stance. There is no doubt that Mihajlovic is a superb footballer. As one of the 5,000 in Portadown on October 2nd 1991, when Mihajlovic was a 22 year-old Red Star Belgrade player and Red Star were the European champions, the performance of Mihajlovic remains vivid.

Darko Pancev was meant to be the main attraction, and Pancev scored, but Mihajlovic's left foot was the real star. He struck the ball so cleanly this reporter compared him to Glenn Hoddle. It provoked a few guffaws but over the past few days the comparison seems more valid than ever. Two great footballers, two flawed men. They'll not be forgotten.