Powell: Di Canio appointment 'bold' move

Paolo Di Canio, pictured, played alongside Chris Powell at Charlton
3 April 2013

Paolo Di Canio's former team-mate Chris Powell believes Sunderland made "a bold decision" in appointing the Italian as their new boss.

Black Cats head coach Di Canio refused to confirm or deny whether he is a fascist in a press conference on Tuesday and labelled the furore over his appointment as Sunderland manager "ridiculous and pathetic".

The 44-year-old Italian named former Charlton left-back Powell, now manager of the Addicks, as one of his best friends from his playing days in English football when he issued a statement on Monday.

That was when denying he has any racist tendencies. Powell is black. Asked about Di Canio's political views after Charlton's draw with Brighton in the npower Championship on Tuesday night, Powell said: "You will have to ask him."

When asked how he thought Di Canio would do at Sunderland, Powell said: "The proof will be their remaining games. He has done well so far in League One and Two with Swindon."

Powell added: "Paolo was part of my club career, being a team-mate of mine and I met him socially.

"Sunderland has made a bold decision."

There has been a strong reaction on Wearside and further afield to Di Canio's appointment as manager of the Barclays Premier League strugglers, because of the past comments and actions of the former West Ham, Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton and Lazio striker.

Di Canio has refused to expand on a 2005 interview with an Italian news agency when he said he was "a fascist, but not a racist".

Powell said: "It's remarkable it didn't come out when he was manager of Swindon. It's a bold gamble football-wise."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in