Woman soccer player dropped over League

(ANSA) - Naples, October 15 - The captain of a women's soccer team that integrates migrants with Italians in Naples has been dropped after standing in a local council election as part of a civic list linked to the anti-migrant Euroskeptic Noi con Salvini ticket led by Interior Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini, sources said Monday.
    Titty Astarita of Afro-Napoli United had announced her intention of standing for the council at Marano near Naples.
    The club works to integrate migrants into Italian society via soccer.
    The club said in a statement "Afro-Napoli United is not a team like any other. It was born as a project of inclusion and integration".
    Salvini has taken touch anti-migrant stances, including stopping migrant ships, which have boosted the League's popularity.
    Afro-Napoli said in a statement "Titty Astarita's choice has left us stunned.
    "We are pained by her persistence in refusing to take a step back as we asked, above all because after a year taking part in Afro-Napoli's's affairs, in a clear role of representation, it should have been clear to her that that candidacy automatically placed her outside the perimeter of the guiding ideas that are at the basis of our association".
    Astarita told ANSA that she had been left "speechless" by being dropped.
    "I stood with a civic list, I don't espouse Salvini's politics and I wouldn't have a selfie taken with him".
    She said "I would have understood if they had asked me to give back my captain's armband, I didn't expect them to ask me to pull my bid in order to stay (with the club)." Salvini tweeted "the only racists are the leftwing do-gooders. Keep politics out of sport!".