Euroscene: "It's bad enough that I have to put up with fans making monkey noises and calling me a black shit every time Messina play away from home but it's never happened to me before that I was systematically insulted at my home ground. That's just too much.

"For a minute or two, that's all I could think of. We've got to stop this game, it's really important that we send a strong message to these people otherwise this shameful behaviour will never end."

The speaker is Ivory Coast and Messina defender Mark Zoro, who in the 67th minute of Sunday's Messina v Internazionale Serie A game went within inches of doing the unthinkable. Zoro, so offended by the racist insults of a section of the Inter fans, stopped the game by picking up the ball and went across to the referee's assistant on the sideline to demand he stop the game because of the systematic racist abuse being levelled at him.

Unfortunately for Zoro and for Italian football, neither the referee nor his assistants were willing to adopt such drastic action. Black opponents in the Inter team, Nigerian Obafemi Martins and Brazilian Adriano, pleaded with him to stay on the pitch and not force the suspension of the game: "They were decent about the whole thing because they get the same sort of treatment themselves every Sunday too. The only thing was I got the impression they were much worried about finishing the game rather than having it suspended because, of course, they were winning 2-0 at the time. Yet, in my opinion, a strong gesture like that would have done good for the whole world of football".

The 22-year-old Zoro, born in Abidjan and a member of the Ivory Coast team that sprang a major surprise by qualifying for next summer's World Cup finals, is absolutely right. Football, especially Italian football, needs the short, sharp shock of a game being abandoned through the initiative of outraged, indignant players.

Instead, Zoro was placated by team-mates, opponents and match officials alike. The game was finished, Messina lost 0-2 and Inter took three points back to Milan.

Inevitably, Zoro's gesture did not go unnoticed. Yesterday's Italian media devoted much space and time to the incident with leading sports daily, Gazzetta Dello Sport commenting: "The day that players respond to those idiots who shout racist abuse at players by walking off the pitch.will be a great day - and not just for football."

Petrol millionaire Massimo Moratti, the man who can afford to bankroll Inter as an act of sporting faith, expressed his solidarity with Zoro, saying: "Zoro is terrific. He has the courage and the indignation of he who is in the right. He did dead right. I admire him for it."

Inter president and former Inter player Giacinto Facchetti, the man who runs the club on a day-to-day basis, personally apologised to Zoro. Furthermore, the Italian Football Federation have decreed that this week's Italian Cup games and next weekend's Serie A programme will all start with the players entering the pitch carrying banners, reading "No To Racism".

It all sounds like a genuine caring response. Yet, when Uefa organised a congress on racism in London two years ago, inviting all European federations and many of the continent's biggest clubs, one country was notable for the absence of either top flight clubs or top level federation officials - Italy, of course.

Until we have proof to the contrary, the suspicion remains that Italian football authorities pay lip service to the issue of combating racism in football, without really understanding or wanting to understand the seriousness of the problem.

Remember, too, that in recent years, there have been many other incidents - Serb Sinisa Mihajlovic of Lazio racially abusing Arsenal's black Frenchman Patrick Vieira during a Champions League tie in October 2000 being just one of many unsavoury episodes.

An uneasy thought remains. What exactly will it take for Italian (and indeed perhaps Spanish) football authorities to deal with the racism issue seriously? Some sort of racist-inspired tragedy? Let us hope not. Perhaps, if the players walked off the pitch, however, the point might be made. Perhaps Zoro was right.