UEFA investigates Italian soccer head over racism

The Italian football federation's new president is being investigated by UEFA over an alleged racist comment.

Carlo Tavecchio won the vote last week despite causing a stir during the election campaign over a reference to bananas when discussing the presence of foreign players in Italy.

FIFA had urged the Italian federation to investigate Tavecchio but UEFA has intervened and opened a case.

Tavecchio has been "personally informed by UEFA about the decision of its chief ethics and disciplinary inspector to open a disciplinary investigation on alleged racist comments made by him," UEFA said.

Using a hypothetical name, Tavecchio had said, "In England they select players based on professionalism, whereas we say that 'Opti Poba' is here, he was eating bananas before and now he's starting for Lazio and that's OK."

UEFA said once the report is completed, its control, ethics and disciplinary body will decide how to proceed. Tavecchio has already apologized for his comment and claimed he is not racist but the players' and coaches' associations in Italy both expressed outrage.