...dove una neopromossa è al quinto posto ma è da scudetto perché ha pareggiato in casa della capolista all'87'. Bella partita, giocata discretamente, ma basta? Avesse vinto 3 o 4 a 1 la Roma, nulla da dire. Volendo, l'anno scorso lo scudetto l'avrebbe meritato anche l'Udinese, unica squadra non battuta dall'Inter dei record.

E' uno strano campionato quello in cui i campioni in carica sono al secondo posto ma sono in crisi nera, con l'allenatore sull'orlo dell'esonero (pare che Mourinho sia stato mandato via dal Chelsea apposta per farlo venire all'Inter, stando ai giornalai), il presidente arrabbiato -pare abbia detto "non è ancora ora di processi", deve essere proprio arrabbiato- e i giocatori scarsi. L'Inter ha giocato non benissimo ma nemmeno malissimo, certo l'avversario non era dei migliori, ha preso sberle da tutti, ma se la Juve è al 95%, la Roma al 90%, l'Inter tra assenze e stato di forma sarà sì e no al 50%. Forse esagero pure. Ma la stampa fa già i processi.

E' uno strano campionato quello in cui ci sono notizie che i media tengono nascosti. Il terzo pareggio consecutivo del Milan, al contrario di quello dell'Inter, non suscita polemiche e non mette in crisi la panchina di Ancelotti, a differenza di quella di Mancini. Il dominio del Parma nel secondo tempo è stato indiscusso, ma niente, tutti zitti con qualche lodevole eccezione. Ieri sera a Controcampo si discuteva sulla domanda "Se il Milan vincesse solo Supercoppa Europea e Mondiale per Club, sarebbe una stagione positiva?". Difficile la scelta tra il no di Giovanni Galli basato su considerazioni tecniche e il sì dello stesso Franco Rossi basato invece sull'immagine del club nel mondo, per me hanno entrambi ragione. Ma come non essere d'accordo con la provocazione dello stranamente lucido Maurizio Mosca, che si chiedeva come mai il Milan non dimezzasse i prezzi degli abbonamenti della Serie A, visto come la snobbano?

C'è silenzio sul secondo posto della Fiorentina e, soprattutto, dell'Atalanta. Sono tutti intenti a glorificare la neopromossa, immagino che se i viola battessero la Roma mercoledì, si candiderebbero direttamente per il Treble: Scudetto, Coppa UEFA e Coppa Italia. L'Atalanta ha sconfitto la Lazio e finora si è mantenuta in perfetta media inglese, ed è seconda coi toscani e con l'Inter. Via Colantuono è arrivato Delneri che è un ottimo allenatore per la dimensione provinciale dei bergamaschi. Vedremo se, ancora una volta, le considerazioni dei media saranno ribaltate in pochi giorni.

 

Questo blog festeggia il ritorno del Genoa in Serie A dopo 12 anni!

Forza Genoa (a anche complimenti al Napoli!) 

Last weekend, almost at the same time, two presidents confessed their mistakes, by reinstating a coach they sent away before. "I made a mistake" says Torino President, Urbano Cairo, "maybe Zaccheroni could have done better with a squad built by him". The history of the Granata is really unbelievable: Gianni De Biasi, the coach that lead the team to promotion, was sent away before the beginning of the season. Cairo hired Zaccheroni, maybe he thought the Cesenatico coach was more experienced, as he coached Milan, Lazio and Inter.

Five consecutive defeats and a bad position in Serie A table (just a little bit above the relegation zone) put Zac's position in danger. Last Saturday Torino played away at ChievoVerona, and it was clear this was the last ditch for him. Just before the game the Rosina-gate made a noise: Torino striker in his personal website gave bad rankings to the whole team -except himself- and in Verona was sent to the stand. Torino lost 0-3 and the defeat was lethal to Zaccheroni. So, Cairo went back to the past, again with De Biasi.

In Cagliari, it happened almost the same. President Cellino called up Marco Giampaolo last summer after young coach did very well at Ascoli, but as usual it's not easy to work with that kind of Presdient. Cellino is a little bossy, and in Italy we say that executives like him are "Mangia-allenatori" (Coach-eaters), meaning they change coaches just like they change their shirt. That's why Cellino in December sent Giampaolo away, while Cagliari was playing badly but was just in a safe position.

Cagliari had a new coach, the experienced Franco Colomba. But the former Reggina trainer did not satisfy his chairman, who lives in Miami and manages the club from overseas. Last Sunday, after Cagliari's defeat against Lazio, Cellino decided to call Giampaolo again. In the meantime, Giampaolo had left Cagliari, his house and changed the school to his sons in another part of Italy. Unfortunately for him, the coach has still a contract in place; so, if he didn't accept to come back, he'd loose his salary from now until contract expiry.

Tomorrow the tricks of fate -and Serie A schedules, of course- will play off De Biasi against Giampaolo, for day 26. At least one of them won't loose, and a president will be, finally, happier than before.

Flachi and his way to exult after scoring

It has already happened in the past, and now it's again: Francesco Flachi, Sampdoria forward, has been tested positive for benzoilecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, after Sampdoria-Inter of 28yh of Jannuary, when the Genoans lost 0-2. Today is cocaine, like in 1996: at that time he had been even blamed for international drugs traffic by public prosecutor in Rome, in particular between Rome and Colombia. For Flachi there's been no peace this year, as he has already expiated a 2 months ban for illegal betting, together with his former teammate, Morris Carrozzieri (we talked about this ban here)

"The Anti-doping CONI commission -we read in a handout- on Federation of sport doctors suggestion, after advising the Federation involved, has established a case of positiveness. Rome laboratory has found, in his first sample analyzed, presence of Benzoilecgonina (metabolite of cocaine) for Francesco Flachi".
After Calciopoli, match-fixing and betting scandals, riots in Catania and games played behind closed doors, today another page in the Italian football 'black book'. World Cup's win is already a distant memory...

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.