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How things can change in just four days
Wednesday, 07 February 07, 11:26 AM · Comments (0)
Friday: indignation. Saturday: it's absurd to die for a football match. Sunday: safety is our first priority. Monday: closed doors if stadium does not fit "Legge Pisanu" requirements. Tuesday: play behind closed doors is fascism. This is how the state of mind of some Italian clubs' presidents has changed in four days. Yesterday Mr. Matarrese, their no.1, had an interview with 'Radio Capital' where he said that "show must go on and one man's death is something that may happen", creating a big controversy where everybody is against everybody. Palermo chairman, Maurizio Zamparini, was asking his resignment, but the 71 y.o. man, that 20 years ago was already FIGC president, is still there. A meeting among the executives and another one between them and FIGC have been held yesterday: the result is that Government's hard line has won.
The only certainties are: just four stadiums (Rome, Turin, Palermo and Siena) meet safety standards, some other (Milan, for example) just need some adjustments, a few others are extremely far to meet requirements; next weekend they could play games valid for day 23 in Serie A, while the games not played last weekend will be ricovered maybe in the middle of April (18?). The bad news is that yesterday, after the solidarity and all good intentions of the last three days, some of them was contrary to closed door matches. Aurelio De Laurentiis of Napoli (serie B) is outspoken: "This is fascism, they cannot impose it. We could decide not to play, why shoud we do it if there are no safety guarantees?". Lazio president Lotito, whose stadium is by law and who is living under escort as he fights the phenomenon "ultras", tried to mediate different positions, in order to have an unique point of view. Everybody agrees that serie A wouldn't be regular. But they lost.
Anyway, majority of clubs would like to play with public, but as we said only 4 stadiums are ok. For example, Verona stadium "Bentegodi" (where next Sunday we'll have Chievo-Inter) needs interventions for more than one million euros. And, last but not least, all these stadiums are owned by minicipalities, meaning that they have to farm out works with a competitive tender, so it will take a long time to have stadiums by law. Let's see what will be in the next few days, council of ministers will decide tomorrow if next weekend thay will play, and what are the conditions. The Government will decide, football is not indipendent anymore. Don't know if it's good or bad...
The only certainties are: just four stadiums (Rome, Turin, Palermo and Siena) meet safety standards, some other (Milan, for example) just need some adjustments, a few others are extremely far to meet requirements; next weekend they could play games valid for day 23 in Serie A, while the games not played last weekend will be ricovered maybe in the middle of April (18?). The bad news is that yesterday, after the solidarity and all good intentions of the last three days, some of them was contrary to closed door matches. Aurelio De Laurentiis of Napoli (serie B) is outspoken: "This is fascism, they cannot impose it. We could decide not to play, why shoud we do it if there are no safety guarantees?". Lazio president Lotito, whose stadium is by law and who is living under escort as he fights the phenomenon "ultras", tried to mediate different positions, in order to have an unique point of view. Everybody agrees that serie A wouldn't be regular. But they lost.
Anyway, majority of clubs would like to play with public, but as we said only 4 stadiums are ok. For example, Verona stadium "Bentegodi" (where next Sunday we'll have Chievo-Inter) needs interventions for more than one million euros. And, last but not least, all these stadiums are owned by minicipalities, meaning that they have to farm out works with a competitive tender, so it will take a long time to have stadiums by law. Let's see what will be in the next few days, council of ministers will decide tomorrow if next weekend thay will play, and what are the conditions. The Government will decide, football is not indipendent anymore. Don't know if it's good or bad...
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Gabriele
Roma, IT
Un posto diverso da Calciopoli, molto più bello!
