So Paolo Di Canio has been appointed the new Sunderland manager, and some people dont seem to understand why this is a totally terrible thing. Paolo Di Canio is a fascist. He believes in an ideology that propped up Hitler during World War II, and that millions of our ancestors died fighting against. He believes in an ideology that promotes violence over peace, racism over equality, division over unity. It is an ideology that has spectacularly failed every time it has been tried. Such views are not appropriate to be given such a public forum. For those who genuinely didnt quite understand the fuss, this should hopefully be sufficient enough to persuade them that Di Canio + Sunderland = boooooooooooooooooooooo. But, alarmingly, for some it doesnt seem to be. There seem to be three standard arguments in favour of Di Canio being allowed to take charge at Sunderland. The first is HOORAY FOR FASCISM! This is largely propagated by fascists and can thus be ignored. The second is that it doesnt matter what Paolos political beliefs are; hes been made a manager of a football team, not dictator of the country. This argument infuriates me the most; even though I loathe fascism as an ideology I can at least have the slightest shred of something that vaguely resembles respect for those who have sufficient passion about anything, even fascism, to try and actively support it. Freedom of speech and all that. But people who say well, it doesnt matter what he believes as long as he wins games? The sheer apathy of anyone who recognises on some level what a dreadful system fascism is and yet shoves it to one side because they believe a game, even an incredibly high stakes game, to be more important actually sickens me. Fascism is more of a threat to even the most die-hard Sunderland fan than the relegation of Sunderland. It is genuinely alarming that anyone could believe otherwise. Of course, this is without taking into account that there were a bevy of managers who A) are more qualified for the job than Di Canio and B) arent going to participate in some hate speech any time soon. Gus Poyets completely transformed Brighton into an enviably attractive football team; he may well have not fancied relocating to the other end of the country, but hes got Premier League ambitions and it would have been worth throwing some money at him. Chris Powell has done similar at Charlton. Alan Curbishley has done brilliant work at both Charlton and West Ham and is itching to get back into football. Any argument that could be made to bring in Di Canio, who did an undeniably good job at Swindon but walked out when the going got tough and has no experience of management above League One, on purely footballing grounds is flimsy at best. The third is that someone shouldnt be barred from having a job for his political beliefs. I agree with that to an extent. If Paolo wanted to work in a bank or clean windows, then I would have no issue with that. If Paolo wanted to go on Question Time and debate the merits of fascism with sceptics then I would have no problem with that either. Such mediums are the only way to expose the gaping holes in the ideology. The position of Head Coach at Sunderland, though, is a high profile job in which he will be given ample opportunity to air his political views without any direct counter argument. He refrained from doing so at Swindon but the threat is always there. It isnt like I disagree with people who have different political views than me working in football. Michael Laudrup is a firm believer in free-market economics. I am not. This does not stop me from having a colossal man-crush on Michael Laudrup. But fascism is not just your standard political ideology. Fascism rips apart communities and destroys lives on a far more horrific scale than any other political ideology bar Nazism or the little known political ideology of Attack Your Enemies With a Shovel-Ism. Although to be honest thats pretty much what fascism boils down to in the end anyway. I dont hate Paolo Di Canio. No-one can help being silly enough to believe in Fascism I suppose. He was definitely a really good player, and hes an entertaining character on his day. He might even be able to keep Sunderland in the Premier League on sheer bloody mindedness and willpower alone. But is it worth it? Is the threat of even a couple of seasons out of the Premier League worth poisoning your football club? Earlier in the day Sunderlands Twitter feed had been enthusiastically playing up their connection with Brian Clough. Brian Clough would be absolutely appalled with the appointment of Paolo Di Canio, and so is every intelligent, politically conscious Sunderland and indeed football fan in Britain. Di Canio has signed a two year contract, so I guess this article is a little futile, but this simply cannot be allowed to happen again. If Di Canio wants to offer his talents as a manager he needs to ditch or at least silence the fascism. And, indeed, if you take him at his word that shouldnt be too hard, because he isnt one. He opposes racism, which is an inseparable part of fascism. He has several socialist friends. He doesnt even participate in the political process. Yet still he preaches this hateful philosophy, apparently just because it gives him an identity. As long as he continues to do so, Di Canio must be challenged and opposed at every single turn, and so must any football club that co-operates with him.