Story highlights Racism in Italian football is a complex issue, highlighting different attitudes

"Ultra" fan groups admit targeting their clubs' black opponents with racial abuse

Anti-racism group says official figures about racist incidents are not accurate

Academic urges football authorities to take stronger action against racist offenders

Hardcore Italian football "ultra" Federico is a Lazio supporter who happily admits directing monkey chants at black players.

It is "a means to distract opposition players" says Federico, a member of the Irriducibili ("The Unbeatables") group which follows the Rome-based team.

"I am against anyone who calls me a Nazi," Federico told academic Alberto Testa, who spent time "embedded" with Lazio and Roma ultras for the book "Football, Fascism and Fandom: The UltraS of Italian Football," co-authored by Gary Armstrong.

"What I do not like is people who come to my country and commit crimes; Albanians and Romanians are destroying Rome with their camps," Federico adds.

"But I'm not a racist. One day, I was waiting in my car at the traffic lights and, as usual, there was a young female gypsy who was trying to clean the car windscreen and was asking for money.

"Suddenly municipal police officers started to mistreat the girl. I jumped out of my car and almost kicked his arse. I hate injustice."

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There is nothing black and white about Italian football.

Racist abuse has provided the backdrop to the Serie A season, with the latest incident -- not for the first time -- involving AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli, who was targeted by visiting Roma fans throughout a match at the San Siro Stadium in May.

In the second half referee Gianluca Rocchi called the game to a halt for a few minutes, having warned the crowd via the public address system.

Days after his return to Serie A earlier in 2013, following his move from Manchester City to AC Milan, Italy-born Balotelli was referred to by his new club's vice president Paulo Berlusconi -- the younger brother of the team's owner and the former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi -- as "the family's little black boy."

In the aftermath of Boateng's walkout, Italian interior minister Annamaria Cancellieri told Radio 24 that if only a small group of fans were involved in racist chanting, games should not be suspended, but if "a significant part of the fans take part" the game should be stopped "by those responsible for public order."

As Italy grapples with how best to confront racism, it is worth remembering it's not the only country working out a solution as to how to deal with the problem.

Neo-Nazis and neo-Fascists

This season, matches across Europe have been punctuated by repeated racist outbursts, which have led to calls for world governing body FIFA and European counterpart UEFA to show greater leadership and impose harsher sanctions.

Amid the monkey chants and racial stereotyping, there are no easy answers to the question of just how prevalent is the incidence of racist abuse in Italian football.

According to the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in Feburary, there have been 50 incidents in Italy of racist abuse over the last six years. Of those 50 cases, 48 relate to racist chanting, with two relating to abusive banners.

"And the total of violent episodes diminished from 209 to 60 and the majority of them happened outside the football venues," FIGC spokesman Diego Antenozio told CNN.

"The introduction of stewarding has also reduced the need of intervention by police officers inside the venues significantly."

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However, talk to the head of Italy's Observatory on Racism and Anti-racism in Football, Mauro Valeri, who has been monitoring racism in Italian football for over a decade, and a different picture emerges.

His organization estimates there have been over 660 racial incidents since 2000 and puts the number since 2007 at 282, nearly six times as much as the FIGC figure. In all, fines of $