Though this championship is -according to many observers- poorer than the last ones, we think that it’s not just a technical matter. Of course, everybody would love to have Juventus, Napoli, Genoa and Bologna in Serie A, as they mean more fans and more money. In terms of quality, the problem is that Inter is dominating, and some teams that could do very well have been penalized, but there are two small clubs that are surprising everybody for their performances.

The first one usually fights till the end to avoid relegation. Sometimes they got it, sometimes they had to take a white flag in their hands. This team is Reggina, and everybody before the beginning of the season said it had no chance. A fifteen points penalisation due to match fixing (then on December reduced to 11) on a weak team could have been lethal, but if Serie A finished now, Reggina would be safe from relegation. All this has one name: Rolando Bianchi. The 24 y.o. forward has broken all goal records for a player of the “Stretto” club.

Coming from youth academy of Atalanta (he was born close to Bergamo in 1983), Rolando failed with black and blue jersey (no goal scored), then he played at Cagliari in Serie B and again in Atalanta (but just one match for him). Before this season, he had scored only 3 goals in Serie A (also due to a long stop for a knee injury), now he has already scored 12. Only Totti is doing better. Will it last? We hope for him.

Empoli FC is the other “miracle” this year. Empoli, the quiet town in the surroundings of Firenze, well-known in Italy for artichokes and glass, now is famous for its football team as well. The 'Blues' won in Palermo yesterday, and now they’re fourth (a place that in Italy means Champions League Qualifying). One of the creators of this miracle is Gigi Cagni. The 56 y.o. coach, after notoriety in the 90’s in Piacenza and Verona, has been forgotten for a long time before president Corsi called him in 2005 to guide his team. Last season, the no-frills game of Cagni’s team, brought –after many teams’ penalization- Empoli to UEFA Cup qualifying, but it couldn't even play the Continental competition, as they didn’t have the UEFA licence.

Now, after the 1-0 win in Sicily with a goal of the only foreign player, Argentinean Sergio Almiròn, they achieved an extraordinary result. Are we going too far? Don’t think so, if you play 4-4-2 and the names are not Ronaldo or Ibra, but: Balli; Raggi, Lucchini, Pratali, Tosto; Almiròn, Moro, Buscé, Vannucchi; Matteini, Pozzi. Cagni said he’s happy about the match, but don’t ask him about Europe, he could look you askance…

In a surreal atmosphere, with no viewers, Inter won 2-0 against Chievo and this is Nerazzurri’s fifteenth consecutive wind. Real Madrid (46 years ago) and Bayern (in 2005, but not in the same season) have been equalized, but it’s not an European record yet.
Inter scored after 41”, with Adriano from a very difficult angle, then Chievo tried to make life difficult to Julio Cesar but in second half Crespo (with a suspect handball before kicking) scored for the final 2-0.

Roma won at home vs. Parma (3-0, all goals in second half), but we have to remark that before the match (an open door match, we have to specify) AS Roma fans did not participate in a silence minute in memory of policeman Raciti. There were also slogans against police, a shame one week after Catania events. And it’s been the proof that if the stadium is ok, but you fill it with stupid people, violence problem has not been solved.

AC Milan had to face a difficult test, Livorno is a very good team, even more today with Stefano Fiore and Cesar Rodriguez, two former Lazio players. Ronaldo played in second half, but the decisive goal has been scored by Czech left back Jankulosky. At the end, in Milan San Siro stadium season tickets could watch the match, showing that at the end Italians find compromise between “zero tolerance” and anarchy. Everything went well, and we think they will go well next Sunday for Inter-Cagliari.

All matches started at 3 pm, for security reasons, as we already said. But at the end not every match started on time: Messina-Catania, another risky Sicilian derby, started at 4pm due to heavy rainfalls. An important win in Palermo, and Empoli now is fourth and will have to fight against Milan and Lazio (0-0 in Bergamo behind closed doors vs. Atalanta) for the Champions League qualifying round. Fiorentina had a very good afternoon: Toni and Mutu could not play, but their substitutes Reginaldo and Pazzini scored: Fiorentina is officially one of the candidates for fourth place!

So, we’ll have our football back next Sunday, with a lot of restrictions. For the time being, in Verona, Milan, Bergamo, Florence and Messina they’ll play behind closed doors. We feel that these measures could not be effective, as you know many incidents happened outside the stadiums. We think that “zero tolerance” should mean heavy punishments to people found guilty. For example, jail could be a solution instead of prohibition to go to the stadium. And again, the only criteria they used –stadium- is not enough and, if left alone, doesn’t work. Verona stadium just needs about forty electronic gates to check tickets and supporters’ identity, but Chievo Verona has the quietest fans in the whole Serie A.


Here you have the typical Chievo fans

Anyway, clubs’ owners decided not to strike, and in some stadiums they are working day and night in order to have situation under control. Inter Milan and AC Milan executives had a meeting with the prefect of the Lombardy capital, but we still do not know the results of it. Let’s see, in fact San Siro has the worst situation, it looks like it takes 8 months to complete its reconstruction (in theory). New UEFA president, Michel Platini, wants the open doors. We hope to have both fans in all stadiums and security, and to do we think that clubs and policemen has just to regain those areas of the stadiums that are not under their control (and under law control). It won’t be easy, but it’s necessary.

Let’s go to Spain, to see what happens at Real Madrid. Fabio Capello thanks the ‘Ultras Sur’ group as they did support him while the rest of the crowd was against the Italian coach. That’s why he has been warned by the Spanish government's Anti-violence Commission about this: ‘Ultras Sur’ are violent and Capello’s comments could have negative consequences. Capello was already blamed as, a couple of years ago, expressed a positive comment of Franchism. And when he was a player, he hit a journalist, whose only guilt was to criticize him.

Remaining in Madrid, and talking about the other Italian ‘Fabio’ at Real, Cannavaro said yesterday he could be back to Juventus at the end of the season. Well, he has a contract until 2009, at that time he will be 36. He plays for the most important club in the world, with good possibility to win Liga and Champions League, and he aims to be back to a club that, if thing go well, will be a Serie A newcomer? We think that Fabio 2 just thinks that his Spanish experience is a failure, and said those words just to prevent Madrid executives’ decision to give him away. Let’s see…

In the meantime, public prosecutor in Rome decided to prosecute all GEA managers, especially Alessandro Moggi, and his father Luciano, former general manager of Juventus. The crimes they are charged for are: criminal association for illegal competition, and private violence. After he was banned from football, Moggi is everywhere –TV stations, radio stations, newspapers- to claim he’s innocent. He also said that other clubs guilty, even more than Juve. Let’s see if he’s going to repeat all his theories in a court of law, under oath.

Friday night, a few hours after the death of policeman Filippo Raciti outside Catania stadium, we wrote a post that ended with these words: "But we bet that the executives will think long and hard, and still do nothing effective. In the end, maybe they will decide that it will be possible to watch football only on TV; on the channels they own, of course." I am sorry, but maybe I was right: the decree law issued by the Government in the afternoon confirmed that in stadiums not meeting requirements of the existing law will be played only behindclosed doors matches. All waivers are not valid anymore. We are still waiting (tomorrow) the list of the games that will be played with viewers and the ones that we'll watch on TV only. A few days ago, Tv broadcaster Mediaset prosecuted Italian League because -they say- Serie A is poor, compared to last years.

In general, Italy confirms of being a country where problems are not foreseen, and at the end comes out as an emercency that has to be solved urgently. Reason is banned, especially in football. It happened in 1950, for example, when the national team travelled to Brazil for the World Cup by boat, because one year before there had been the air crash in Superga where the "Grande Torino" was cancelled. Or, from time to time, after our national team's worst defeats, we've always decided to stop signing foreign players, blaming them for our bad results. And now, this decision: it could make sense if there were big responsabilities of Italian clubs, but who authorized them to play in unsafety? Who decided that a risky match shoud have been payed at 6 pm, on Friday? The same persons that now are stopping the game. Yesterday we wrote a post against presidents, but we think everybody is appearing in a bad light.

Let's see what happens, especially which stadiums will be available fo viewers. Ther will be surely legal appeals, as some measures (preventing interdiction to dangerous people) seem to be uncostitutional. Let us be a little bit pessimistic. Next weekend we'll have Serie A again, but it won't be the same thing, for players and, most of all, for fans.

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...

If a stadium is against regulation, matches won't have public. People will be left far from stadiums not only as a measure after a crime has been ensured, but also as prevention. Visitors won't have anymore package of tickets. These are main measures after the meeting held this afternoon in Rome, in order to face security problems following the death of a policeman during match Catania-Palermo, last Friday.

After a brief introduction of undersecretary of Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, Mr. Giuliano Amato, Ministry for Internal Affairs, talked about the result of the meeting:
"Effective laws maust apply without waivers. We'll have people only in the stadiums which are by law: until now, first priority was the sport event, then law and order: we need to change things. So, where stadiums are against regulations, there will be only clsed-door matches. We also have to take other decisions, next Wednesday in an extraordinary council of ministers: sell of packages of tickets to visitors will cease, of course everybody will be able to buy tickets anyway. The, the DASPO (obligation for violents to sign in police stations during football matches) could be also a preventing measure and will also involve underage people. And they won't be only obliged to sign, but also will have to do some social work."

Minister of Sport, Giovanna Melandri: "Measures are severe and have no demagogy, we'll pass a decree law for the short period and other laws for medium and long period. These ones have to change radically the system, public property of stadiums and law and order management has be different: clubs will co-operate and there will be a conspicous number of stewards. Clubs will have more responsability, we want a suspension of relationships (economic, financial and occupational) between clubs and organized groups of fans. We also will create an observatory about communication in sport, we need everybody's help."

President of CONI, Gianni Petrucci, says thanks to the Government for the quick reaction. Security is our first priority, we'll be on the Government's side, we also want football to restart as soon as possible. We'll give our help to create training courses to stewards"
FIGC commissioner Pancalli confirms that football activity won't restart unless there are no security conditions. "I'm satisfied -he says- about the meeting and the choices the Government, that made good decisions. We'll co-operate and probably, if the decree law passes on Thursday, there's the possibility that next weekend championships will start again".

Well, let's consider this meeting as a first step, but we want to point out that these decisions come after a man's death. If he was still alive, we'd never had this meeting. And of course to have stadiums by law helps, but it's not enough to avoid riots: we have to repress first, then change our sport culture, the hoolingans culture has to disappear in favour of football fans culture. And we'd also like to know if clubs subscribers will be refunded if they won't be able to follow a match. People that just want to see a football match have already been damaged, we hope they won't be anymore.

After the riot in Catania last Friday, politicians and football executives said the situation was very hard but they preferred to stay on TV program talking and talking for the whole weekend. So, only this afternoon (after policeman’s funeral) they will meet to decide what will be. Another weekend without football? Maybe. And, maybe, we’ll have some closed-door matches, especially in stadiums that still don’t fit “Legge Pisanu”, the law against violence, requirements.

First of all, we think that violence is in human nature and, though now is lower than in the past, modern society is full of episodes: just yesterday, in Italy a woman has been killed by a neighbour of hers, because her dogs were too noisy. We can try to contain violence, but it’s very difficult to remove it. We think that security forces and governments can give their contribution in finding a solution, but first of all is football itself that must do its best to keep off violent people. Football –nobody in these days reminds this, except the ones that want to restart playing without new measures- is a business. If you are in a business, you don’t want people that make things more difficult to you. The US are in general more dangerous and violent than Italy, but we don’t have recently cases of incidents due to sport events: sport is money, do not disturb it!

Everybody now says: let’s do like in England. First objection: over there, stadiums are owned by clubs, in Italy are owned by municipalities, or by other public institutions like CONI (Olimpico in Rome). So, there’s a paradox: the government issues a decree law. -i.e. stadiums need some requirements- and another public organization doesn’t respect the decree, but always there’s a waiver ready to be given. So, let’s stop with all these waivers, and then install closed-circuit TV within the stadiums in order to identify the guilty parties. And, where it’s possible, see that clubs can become owner of the stadium where they play. The more responsibilities they have, the best they do to keep law and order inside and close to their “home”.

Last but not least, let’s start favouring normal and pacific people, the customers, and not the hooligans. A blogger says: “tell me why a lady of 53 -me- 155cm tall and 58 kg (the typical hooligan), going to the stadium with my sister (she is 57 and same build as I have), always have a pen, or the lighter, or a bottle cap seized, while inside close to “Ultras” seats you can find everything?” Another blogger says: “I used to work in San Siro, and during the week the hooligans could enter and bring everything inside”. This direct evidence clearly defines how the situation is. Clubs that give to the hooligans the running of their merchandising, or of the parking around the stadium, could never fight against violence. At the end, when there are riots and someone dies, they can always say they’ve been blackmailed. After all, of course.

Violence around Catania stadium

This is a derby that had to be played on a Friday night, so it didn't disturb the Sant'Agata procession. The police had to supervise the area around the stadium, in the afternoon of a working day. Outside, the situation is abnormal, and there is something similar to civil war; everybody knows how fierce the rivalry between Catania and Palermo is. Twice, the game is suspended - the footballers cannot play because of the tear gas on the ground. A policeman - police chief inspector Filippo Raciti, 38 - dies because of a crude bomb that explodes inside his car, and there are more than 100 wounded people in the Emergeny Room of Garibaldi hospital.

Well... this is not football; this is urban guerrilla warfare, the natural result of years of poor lawmaking against violence. They have been a complete failure: all the measures taken have just kept peaceful people away from the stadiums, and ended up concentrating the hooligans and people that consider football to be an excuse to give vent to their animal brutality. This afternoon, something happened at the beginning of second half when the Palermo "Ultras" arrived at the stadium, and there was a delay due to the large amount of security checks. And at the end of the game there was, as we said, the civil war. Maybe this was also due to Palermo winning with a controversial goal.

Immediately, Commissioner Pancalli decided to suspend the championships. Next Monday there will be a meeting between FIGC and the Government, but let us be a little bit skeptical; this is not the first time that someone has died because of a football match. It's sad, but it's also sad listening to the politicians saying that things like this cannot happen anymore (until next time, we say), and the football executives that suspend the championship (when we don't know how extensive this suspension could be). Of course, to stop for a day as a sign of respect for a policeman who died is correct, but they want football to be stopped until they find an ABSOLUTE solution. They want to reflect, and maybe stop all the championhips for the whole year. And then? When their false indignation has finished, nobody will think about this anymore. Especially the people that now are crying, who yesterday were arguing and shouting at the TV for a penalty or an off-side.

Unfortunately, nobody in Italy thinks about the football fan - the customer, paying a lot of money to watch the game. Are the violent people a minority? Yes, but don't worry, they do their best to make it impossibile for pacific people to go to the stadiums. Nominal tickets, prohibition to sell tickets at the stadium the day of the match, personal inspections to everybody going into the stadium. And all the while the violent never go to jail, and just keep on fighting the police all around.

As fans, we think that things cannot really change unless they focus on heavy punishments to the perpetrators of violence. For too long a time, the stadiums have been a free zone, where the laws do not apply, and they continue to be. Violence in football could be solved with cameras that identify the guilty parties, and with more stewards, and less policemen if possible (on several occassions, violence erupts because of clashesh between the police and hooligans). But we bet that the executives will think long and hard, and still do nothing effective. In the end, maybe they will decide that it will be possible to watch football only on TV; on the channels they own, of course.

Ronaldo and Adriano Galliani at today's press conference

Here you have the second part of Ronie’s press conference (today at noon, CET). The Brazilian talked about many issues, and Galliani at the end said Capello suggested him to sing Ronaldo! “But he told me also some other things, not too fair, about him”, stated AC Milan CEO.
Let’s continue with the question time.

J: Did you hear Carlos Dunga recently?
R: No, I didn’t. But there’s no need to talk each other, what I will able to do on the playground will be the most important thing.

J: Do you know your partner Gilardino, and whe you think you’ll be ready to play?
R: I know him very well. It depends on the athletic trainer and on the coach, I haven’t played for one month, but test results are good.

J: Which are your objectives and AC Milan ones?
R: Unfortunately cannot play Champions League, I think our main objective is to be one of the top four in Serie A

J: Is “Copa America” one of your goals?
R: No, I mean, first goal is to do right here at Milan, then Dunga will call people that do right.

J: Was it more difficult to leave Milan five years ago, or Madrid now?
R: Well, it’s quite the same. Oh, my son will stay in Madrid, and even though we’ll meet when I have some free time, for this reason it’s harder now.

J: What did you miss of Italy? What do you think about Juventus in Serie B?
R: I missed a lot my friends. Don’t feel anything about Juventus (he laughs), I’m interested in AC Milan only.

J: Do you think there will be technical problems?
R: No, I felt in the club a very good mood as I hadn’t seen for many time, then I’ll try to do what Ancelotti asks me, in order to help AC Milan to hit its mark.

J: What happened between Fabio Capello and you?
R: It seems like a joke, but there were no problems between me and Capello. He just didn’t put faith in me, without explaining me why. And I didn’t ask him why. It’s a sad story.

J: Ten years after your first arrival in Milan, what changes in your person?
R: Well, I have been back for a couple of days, give me some more time, but I’m still the same Ronaldo and I have same enthusiasm.

J: A lot of things have been said about your weight.
R: I did all the tests, fat percentage in my body is in the average, the weight means nothing in a sportsman, fat percentage is more important.

J: Are there analogies with Rivaldo in 2002? Are you afraid to be unsuccessful as he was?
R: Past is past, I am sure I’ll go right, and Rivaldo himself was not so unsuccessful, that year Milan won Champions League.

J: Did Cassano express his will to follow you at AC Milan? Or maybe he’ll join Inter next June?
R: Cassano knows what to do, he is a good guy and a great player.

J: Did you choose AC Milan because of the presence of other Brazilian players?
R: AC Milan is one of the best clubs in the World, ant this is the only reason for my choice. Well, the fact that many other Brazilians are here makes me happy but I can see that nationality is not a critical point and everybody works to reach same goals (maybe he refers to the controversies between Argentineans and Brazilians at Inter)

J: After Milan-Parma, Mr. Berlusconi said he’s working to sign Ronaldinho, are you dreaming of a trio Kakà, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho?
R:I am a newcomer, it would be a lack of respect to my team mates, if I invited other players to join AC Milan. Of course, it would be great to have Ronaldinho

J: Are you ready to play next Sunday, if they ask you?
R: Let’s wait and see, I’m available but at the moment I had no training yet, here at Milan.

(end, part 1 here)

Challenge is the key word of first Ronaldo's press conference. The Brazilian said this word for many and many times during his first press conference today, noon CET, at Hotel Executive in Milan. More than 100 journalists, alongside of Ronaldo AC Milan CEO, Adriano Galliani. The manager starts the conference with a short statement: “Everybody knows who is Ronaldo, and this transfer has just technical reasons, in spite of the media impact of the player. We wanted him already in August, on day 24th we understood that there were no requirements, but we said goodbye, it wasn’t a farewell”

Then, the question time starts, here below some questions and answers.

J: The Arabs had a big mass of money for you, why did you choose Milan?
R: This is my life’s most important challenge, a sport challenge for which I refused a lot of money. I had offers from Saudi Arabia and from the US, I could stay in Madrid but I want to show againt to the whole world that I’m not over, I have a great enthusiasm.

J: Any doubt in choosing AC Milan, after your 5 years at Inter?
R: No doubts, I have had a beautiful history at Inter but now there’s a new challenge to face (again, we say) and I’m very happy, I have accepted immediately. There’s been some troubles in the negotiation, but since first Milan approach I decided to accept their offer.

J: You will see many changes here, what do you expect outside the ground, especially Inter fans?
R: Surely I’d like that people that were with me and now are on the other side of the barricades demonstrate respect for me. My history at Inter, again, was so beautiful, but it’s gone awry, I’ve been sent away, almost obliged by the coach (Cuper). I’m in Milan once again and I am very happy.

J: Did you think of Moratti and what he should have said?
R: No, everybody chooses his own road, I hope to do right for all these people that welcomed me in a very good way. I wish Moratti good luck, but I stay on my road.

J: A couple of weeks ago, Arrigo Sacchi in an interview said very bad words about you: “Ronaldo is a player that hates rules and don’t train as he should.
R: I have respect for rules, always trained and done what they told me to do. I don’t understand his statements but everybody is free to say what he wants. I have won a lot, nobody never gave me anything, I made it with a lot of sacrifices

J: A lot has been said and written, about the fact that you’re not like before and you don’t have enthusiasm
R: I have already said this, just being here is a big thrust, I refused many opportunities, but I want to show I’m still here, don’t matter about money

J: Materazzi invited Inter fans to go light with you
R: I’m not interested in what they think on the other side

J: Did you speak to Berlusconi? And what is your personal idea about Milan?
R: I talked to him, he gave me his warm welcome, I’m happy about this. Well, the game vs. Roma went wrong, but I’m sure things are getting better