Inter 1 Cagliari 0 (Burdisso)
Empoli 1 AS Roma 0 (Pozzi)
Siena 3 AC Milan 4 (Ronaldo 0-1, Vergassola 1-1, Oliveira 1-2, Maccarone 2-2, Ronaldo 2-3, Maccarone 3-3, Ambrosini 3-4)


Burdisso, this is best year at Inter for Argentina defender

This is the last week without night matches, so teams that will play Champions League next Tuesda and Wednesday played all in advance this afternoon. With its 1-0 win to Cagliari (header of Burdisso after 12'), Inter broke all records with its 16th consecutive win in Serie A, and extended its lead to 14 points on AS Roma. A double face match, this afternoon: a good first half, with Luis Figo teaching football and Ibra 'big foot' giving a ball to Burdisso that the Argentinean defendere just needed to be pushed into Cagliari's goal. Second half wasn't really unforgettable, Inter thought too much about Valencia, and just kept the match under control. Cagliari went close to equalize just once, on the other side Stankovic hit the crossbar. So, now let's think about Valencia: it's a pity that an absurd decision kept people out of San Siro, except the holding season tickets ones.

It could have been a quiet Saturday, but forward Nicola Pozzi of Empoli gave with his beautiful goal a big help to Inter. The 1-0 win of Empoli is the biggest surprise of the day, in an empty stadium (the game was played behind closed doors). This is the real difference between the Nerazzurri and their opponents: Inter can start -and win- without Materazzi, Javier Zanetti, Vieira, Maxwell, Maicon, Adriano. AS Roma today field a formation without Chivu, Mexes, Taddei and Mancini: the Romans were unlucky, hit two goal posts but at the end they lost. Now Tuscans -we already talked about them here- are speeding along to Champions League qualifying. AS Roma just needs to forget about the defeat and think of Champions League and Lyon.

Just two points below Empoli we find AC Milan. The Rossoneri got 3 important points in Siena, and Ronaldo scored twice: the 1-0 goal with a header -not exactly his speciality- and Milan third goal after a slalom of Kakà, when he could just score from 3 metres. Surely Ancelotti had a good Ronaldo, we're not sure the Brazilian was of no use to Real and coach Capello. The problem, for AC Milan, is that he cannot play in Champions League, and for Glasgow also Gilardino probably won't be available. Be sure that it won't be easy at Celtic Park next Wednesday, but Milan has been the best Italian team in Europe during these years. A very good afternoon also for Siena forward Maccarone: Big Mac, back from England, scored twice but he couldn't avoid Siena's defeat.

Serie A Table:
Inter 63, AS Roma 49, Palermo 42, Empoli 35, AC Milan (-8) 33, Lazio (-3) 31, Catania 31, Atalanta 29, Udinese 29, Sampdoria 27, Fiorentina (-15) 25, Siena (-1) 25, Cagliari 23, Livorno 23, Torino 22, Reggina (-11) 19, Chievo 18, Messina 17, Parma 15, Ascoli 12.

Inter, Roma, Empoli, Milan, Siena, Palermo, Catania played 23 matches, all the others 22.

Roberto Baggio...turned tail after his retirement

I forgave Marcello Lippi for sending Baggio away from Inter in 2000 only last Summer, as the coach from Viareggio won the World Cup on Italy's bench. Well, it's always been Roberto's destiny to be kicked away by coaches that suffered too much his important presence. It happened at Juventus, when Del Piero came and took his place, it happened at AC Milan, and it happened also at Inter. Baggio left the Nerazzurri with two goals in a very important match vs Parma that qualified them to Champions League. Then, he went to Brescia and everybody said he was over: 95 games with 45 goals in four years were his reply.

Most of all, Baggio for the Italian fans is the heart and soul of the Notti Magiche (magic nights) of the World Cup 1990: Stadio Olimpico in Rome shouted with joy and people couldn't believe their eyes after his goal to Czechoslovakia, a fifty metres ride as he entered the goal with the ball glued to his magic right foot. He had just dribbled six opponents!

Before Cannavaro in 2006, Roby Baggio was the last Italian to win the Ballon d'or and the Fifa World Player in 1993. Then, his mistake in the penalty kicks sequence in World Cup final -Usa 94- was a spot in his career, but back to Italy he won two consecutive Scudetti with two different jerseys: Juventus and AC Milan. Once he left Milan, he did well in Bologna, Inter and Brescia, played another World Cup in 98 and in 2002 fans and media entered into debate with Trapattoni because he didn't bring Baggio to its possible fourth World Cup. The lost versus South Corea helped keeping this debate live, even a lot of time after tha World Cup had finished.

Roberto Baggio will be 40 on the 18th of February, next Sunday. He stopped playing football in summer 2004, and after that we did not hear a lot of him. Now he lives in a large country house close to Caldogno (Vicenza), his home town. He doesn't follow Italian football, just hardly knows that Inter is dominating. From time to time he goes to the stadium, but only while he is in Argentina (over there he owns a farm), in his frequent shooting holidays. In fact, hunting is an old passion of his, and now he can practise it almost full time. He lives in a golden isolation, runs a sport goods shop where his sister works. He still follows Buddhism.

In other words, he enjoys the pleasures of family life (he has a wife and three sons), and lives in a home where he has even built a museum with 300 wood birds, a stuffed wild pig and a small boat with some ducks around. Well, it is not necessary that every top player stays in football world after retirement, but only the great stars will never be forgotten even if they become just family men or everything but a coach. And Roberto Baggio is one of these...

Last Saturday Juventus was in Vicenza and 20’ before the end of the match it was 2-0 ahead. In just six minutes, Greek defender Evangelois Nastos and youngster Gabriele Paonessa scored for the draw, and the Bianconeri had no reaction and the only occasion was a free kick that Del Piero threw away. After Napoli’s win behind closed doors, Juve is still first but the Azzurri reached them on the top.

Trezeguet and Camoranesi left out, a defence that is still the second in all Serie B but doesn’t work as it should in the away games are the reasons why French coach is on trial. Deschamps talked yesterday to his players, but no one of the board of directors were present. For some media, Deschamps’ position is bad, some of them points out Marcello Lippi as his successor even before June.

We think that after Calciopoli, all that happens around Juventus has been amplified. The Turin club is not playing good football, but chances to be promoted are still high and many players are injured or are about to come back. And new executives, despite the announces on the newspapers, are really working in order to have a competitive team, at least for fourth place, in next year’s Serie A. And we think that will make it.

Another good news in this bad period for Juve, is that the new stadium project has been approved by the board of directors and will be submitted to FIGC. The new stadium, built on the old “Delle Alpi”, will have 45000 seats and will be ready for –eventually, if Italy will be designated on April 18th- Euro 2012.

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.