THE principal of a Scottish university has been given honorary membership of his favourite Italian football club.

Sir Anton Muscatelli, principal of Glasgow University since 2009, was born in Bari in 1962 and grew up supporting Inter Milan.

A club spokesman said: "Sir Anton has always been a passionate Nerazzurri fan and his personal story also mirrors that of the spirit at Inter Club where the passion for Inter crosses borders and creates a sense of family in a multicultural environment in which many languages are spoken by members who are all brought together by the values represented by the Nerazzurri colours."

After receiving honorary Inter Club membership, Sir Anton described his continuing passion for Inter, despite the distance between Glasgow and Milan.

He said: "Like most fans, I started to love Inter thanks to my family. My favourite uncle and other family members were already Inter fans before I was.

"Furthermore, I grew up in the late 1960s when Inter were winning in Europe so lots of children and young people started to like them.

"Among the players that I’ve loved the most, it’s impossible not to think of the heroes in the ‘Grande Inter’ side such as Giacinto Facchetti and Sandro Mazzola.

"There are also great centre-forwards such as Boninsegna and Altobelli who I saw score in the European Cup when I was still at university.

"What can you even say about Ronaldo? He was the most complete player that I ever saw."

Sir Anton said football was an important part of his youth and that he always kept in touch with Inter results - watching games when he had the time.

He said: "To me as a young child growing up playing football, playing in the streets or in the school yard, it was all about being with your friends and it was about developing a sense of community.

"Of course, at the same time you start following your own football team, you start, at least in my case, becoming interested in the history of the club and it is a very natural thing to do, especially for children, to recount the oral history of a club."

Sir Anton said although he was born in the south of Italy, he lived abroad for most of his life, so tended to watch Inter on television.

"I am very fortunate in the UK that Serie A games are shown live and I watch them every week if I can. If I am abroad I try to follow it on the Inter website.

"When games weren’t being shown in the seventies and eighties I would get a shortwave radio and listen to programmes that kept you up to date on live scores, so I was trying to follow them with every means possible."

Sir Anton said he had passed his love for the club to his children.

"There is a genetic link because both my kids are Inter fans as a result of my own interests, so it is a very strong bond."