PAOLO Di Canio and fascism.

Full disclosure: I co-wrote his autobiography 15 years ago and I've known him since his Celtic days. In my experience there is nothing to suggest Sunderland's new manager is a Nazi, a racist or a psychopath, despite what has been said about him this week.

He does, as he writes in the book, sympathise with the right wing, but it's not a Thatcher, free-market right. It's a pro-trade union, pro-immigration, nationalist right. He has a bunch of tattoos, some of them with themes that can be read as fascist, or at least Lazio-related. And, yes, he gave that infamous salute – twice – and while you can argue it's a Roman salute and common among Lazio fans, it's also identical to a Nazi salute and grossly insensitive.

You may feel the above should disqualify him from managing a football club, even though he hasn't said or done anything remotely political in the past eight years, and that's fine. But you, the reader, should not have been subjected to the lies, hypocrisy and shoddy journalism churned out by the British media in the past week.

That quote everyone attributed to him, "I'm a fascist, not a racist"? He never said it. It's not in the original wire story, it's a paraphrased headline which is nowhere in the actual text of the story. Which, by the way, doesn't contain any direct quotes from him.

And the business about finding Benito Mussolini to be a "principled, ethical individual"? Yes, it's in the book. Just before the bit where he says that while the dictator was that way at first – to the point he went to prison for his beliefs – he put his morals to one side to seize and maintain power. He also calls Mussolini "vile" and "calculating".

But, of course, you might not have known that, because, most likely, the article you were reading was written by someone too lazy or ignorant to bother to check the facts. Probably because it involved something as difficult or time-consuming as an internet search and Google Translate or reading a few pages of a book (one published in English and in this country). Di Canio is a multi-millionaire former football player with a strong family behind him. He'll be fine, either way. But you wonder: what happens to the next guy who gets caught in a media vortex of distortions? What if it's someone less able to cope?

Go ask Chris Jefferies – Joanna Yeates' landlord – how much fun it is to be in the sights of in an ill-trained, irresponsible media.

CONTROVERSY over Di Canio's political beliefs and the storm that followed his appointment diverted attention from a question that might otherwise have received considerably more coverage: have the club got themselves an upgrade by replacing Martin O'Neill with the Italian maverick?

No matter what happens, that will not be answered between now and the end of the season. Sunderland were free-falling when they dispatched O'Neill last Saturday night, that much isn't in dispute. A run in which they took two points from seven games tells its own story and, as if that wasn't enough, Steven Fletcher, who scored nearly 40% of the club's goals from open play this term, is out for the rest of the season.

O'Neill had seemed increasingly depressed and withdrawn in recent weeks. When he came out and said in public that the squad "lacked true, real quality" it didn't go down well with owner Ellis Short. Sunderland had spent close to £30 million in net terms since last June. Only five clubs outstripped that: Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Queens Park Rangers and Southampton.

Short was also miffed that O'Neill complained he had not inherited a good enough set of players from Steve Bruce, whom he replaced in December 2011, but that squad had finished 10th and 13th in successive seasons. O'Neill is a better manager than Bruce and he'd had plenty of money to spend – how could he possibly be unhappy with his team?

The choice of Di Canio raised eyebrows – and not just for the obvious reason – but it was made with a longer-term view.

Sunderland recognise that Di Canio won't have much time to work with this group of players. Nor, obviously, is he in a position to immediately bring in new ones. The plan is to galvanise O'Neill's crew, work longer and harder in training and try to execute O'Neill's game plan more effectively, rather than come up with a new one.

If Sunderland stay up, a chunk of the credit should go to the departed manager. The skill set Di Canio acquired at Swindon – where in his first season he won League Two and reached a Wembley final and in his second left the club one game off first place – served him well when it came to having time to build from the ground up.

Turning it around in seven games is a whole different matter. Whether Sunderland stay up or go down, rebuilding will start in the summer, and only after that can judgment start to be passed.

HalfWAY through the Champions League quarter-finals and Real Madrid and Bayern Munich – 3-0 and 2-0 winners at home against Galatasaray and Juventus respectively – each have one foot in the last four. Malaga, who drew 0-0 at home with Borussia Dortmund, and Paris Saint-Germain, held 2-2 at home by Barcelona, are by no means favourites, but they're still in with a shout.

It's funny that playing the second leg at home is still seen as some kind of huge advantage, to the point that Uefa automatically reward group winners that way. Reality is somewhat different.

Looking at the unseeded rounds of the Europa League (last 16 onwards) and Champions League (quarter-finals onwards) since 2008 reveals that the team who opened the two-legged tie on the road only advanced just 42% of the time. If it really was an advantage, a sample this size (88 games) should have seen them advancing on more than 50% of occasions.

Maybe group winners should get the option, rather than the obligation, of playing the return leg in front of their own crowd.