Racism is a major problem around the world, including in Italy.

Romelu Lukaku, Moise Kean and Mario Balotelli are just a few that have suffered racist abuse in Serie A games over the past year.

Serie A have now unveiled their new anti-racism campaign to try and combat the issue.

But they showed just how out of touch they are with some disgraceful artwork.

The presentation had as its centre-piece three pieces from internationally renowned artist Simone Fugazzotto.

Fugazzotto uses chimps and apes in motifs throughout all of his paintings. Serie A hired him specifically for their campaign.

View the images below:

That's almost unbelievable. Fugazzotto tried to justify his paintings.

“For an artist, there is nothing more important than trying to change people’s perceptions via their work,” said Fugazzotto.

“With this trio of paintings, I tried to show that we are all complex and fascinating creatures, who can be sad or happy, Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist, but at the end of the day, what decides who we are is not the colour of our skin."

Serie A's general manager, Luigi De Siervo, spoke out about the choice to use Fugazzotto's paintings.

“Simone’s paintings fully reflect the values of fair play and tolerance, so will remain in our headquarters,” explained Lega Serie A general manager Luigi De Siervo.

“The Lega is taking a strong stand against any form of prejudice. We realise racism is an endemic problems and very complex, so we are facing it on three fronts – cultural, via works of art such as Simone’s paintings, sporting through a series of initiatives and players and clubs, and also repressive, thanks to the collaboration with the police.

“By acting on these three levels, we are sure that we can win the most important match against this plague that is ruining world’s most beautiful sport.”

This all seems quite unbelievable, right? But, sadly, FootballItalia have confirmed that the artwork and campaign is real.

They wrote: "To answer your inevitable questions: a) Yes, it's real. b) The artist uses monkeys in all his paintings. They hired him specifically for this project. c) Yes, it's really real. d)
@SerieA_EN see nothing wrong with monkeys in an anti-racism message. e) Yes, honestly, it's real."

This is just the latest problem Italian football have had with racism.

The fact Serie A think it's acceptable to use images like this in their supposed 'anti-racism' campaign is absolutely ridiculous.

They think that the campaign will help to combat racism but if anything they've only made things worse.

Serie A ought to be ashamed of themselves.