"The modernity of the stadia is the central issue to declining attendances -- families do not want to sit in the cold, unfriendly surroundings," said Neilson.

"In my opinion the league needs to harness to new stadiums to help maximize Serie A's re-emergence."

So what's the solution?

"The FIGC makes a relevant anti-racism activity both in the national and international domain according to the UEFA policy and guidelines, and is member of anti-discrimination organization Football against Racism in Europe," said the Italian Football Federation in its statement to CNN.

"Specific guidelines are part of National License Club System's requirements, as are the anti-racism initiatives that are made through FIGC Youth & School Department to involve 860,000 young footballers."

But as Italian historian John Foot, author of the authoritative book on Italian football "Calcio" points out: "The Italian authorities have been all over the place on racism for a long time."

Racist chants

Valeri, meanwhile, urged the FIGC to donate the racism fines it recoups from the clubs for initiatives against racism, as does UEFA in its work with FARE.

"Any solution has to revolve around the football authorities," added Professor Clifford Stott, who has advised governments and police forces internationally on crowd management policy and practice.

Stott calls on FIFA and UEFA to do more.

"The FIGC, FIFA and UEFA must empower fan-based initiatives that are capable of creating a culture of self-regulation. The anti-racism agenda has come a long way in the last decades.

"By walking off Kevin-Prince and his fellow players have forced the agenda. The high-level political support for his action now means this might happen again, but this time during a much higher profile game -- perhaps even in the Champions League. The authorities have to react to this potential."

But Stott also warned against an indiscriminate reaction by the authorities.

"We have learned a great deal about crowd management since the Heysel disaster, and there must be recognition that it is not appropriate or constructive to sanction whole crowds," he said.

"The approach to security must be capable of differentiating between those fans that are acting illegally and those fans that are not. Failure to recognize this and to react indiscriminately runs a very real danger of escalating not reducing the problems."