Italy Football team

These are strange times in Great Britain. UKIP received 13% of the national vote in the general election, a considerable amount more than the Green Party, the implication being that people are more committed to a hatred of immigration than saving the planet.

Immigrants are nothing to be afraid of. This writer is the grandson of a man who survived Auschwitz and came to England with nothing more than the clothes he was wearing. And now, 70 years later, a football team made up entirely of African migrants has won promotion from the bottom tier of Italy's league system.

Italy is not the most tolerant place and the Koa Bosco players have encountered racist abuse on a regular basis. The team was formed by a Catholic priest in 2013 and is overseen by local Italians. When they’re not competing on the field, the players are working on farms and citrus groves and live in a government-run camp in the region of Calabria. Their coach, Domenico Mammoliti, was short and to the point. He said: