Carlo Tavecchio is white. He is 71. And he hopes and expects to move from his position as leader of the country’s amateur leagues into the vacancy atop the Italian Football Federation — the FIGC.

This is what Tavecchio, a former economist and politician with the Christian Democratic party, told an audience of youth and amateur soccer representatives last Friday:

“In England, they identify the players coming in and, if they are professional, they are allowed to play. Here, we say that any old Opti Pobà can come. Before, he was eating bananas, now he’s playing in the Lazio first XI.”

Opti Pobà is not, as some might imagine, the latest Latin star on the market. It is Tavecchio’s term for any random player.

When Tavecchio was questioned by the media about his speech, he suggested: “I can’t remember if I said the word banana, but I was referring to the C.V. and professionalism required by English football for players who come from Africa and other countries. If anyone has interpreted my speech as offensive, I offer my apologies.”

The apology itself stirs a polemic across Italian politics.

“It seems he lost the sense of what he wanted to say, or what effect certain phrases can have on others,” commented the Congo-born Cécile Kyenge, Italy’s former minister of integration.