The evils of football, farewell to Morosini and the contest between Juventus and AC Milan.

Piermario Morosini had been dead for a few minutes, and already there were countless controversies. Remarks and accusations ranged from a call for greater protection of the health of athletes, to more stringent controls, also on the very young who want take up sport.

The reaction of the sporting circles was exemplary, when it was discovered that it was the young Livorno player who was supporting his disabled sister. And then, the usual problems emerged: hints of disagreements between the clubs on the necessary changes to the match calendar after the suspension of the games, the footballers, who repeated that they play too much, the need to start the championship earlier, in August, and the situation of Italian football, which has been downgraded in Europe and abandoned by supporters.

The controversies were joined by other news about the death of Carlo Petrini, who had also played in Varese, at the beginning of the 1970s, and who published a book in which he revealed scandals that the courts of the day failed to investigate, after the silence of the federations, clubs and general press.

In football, it is the sporting justice of the wealthy, of arrangements and silences, of aid and broad pardons to those who “counted” that often succeeds.

But then, after discovery of the Italian football scandal, arrangements were made to produce the least damage, and attempts, which were successful, thanks to immediate statute of limitations, not to prosecute those who, at the sporting level, should probably have been prosecuted.

If my memory serves me well, Juventus should have started again from C2 Division, and AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, should have been relegated to B Division. For Inter Milan, it was possible to defer relegation. Afterwards, there were raging disputes, and even today, Juventus wants back the shield that Inter is holding on to.

 

There were legitimate barricades to honour Giacinto Facchetti, an exemplary champion and man, who no one brought into question, even after the telephone tapping, the content of which should, at least, have been judged by the sporting authorities.

I may be mistaken, but years ago, the Chairman of Verona Football Team, Garonzi, was punished for denying that he had called a player on the opposing team, before the match. The investigators were sure the call had taken place. They were not interested in what was said. It was a time when football was more credible.

Before the tragedy in Pescara, Coach Conte had said that he was tired of hearing Allegri’s repeated complaints about the goal not given to Muntari during the championship match at the San Siro Stadium.

Complaining about referees is an old practice, that managers resort to mainly to avoid any disputes over their mismanagement of the team: Allegri complained, his colleague complained too, and so, no one talked, for example, about the sequence of ties by Juventus against even modest opponents. For Juventus, it would be a historic defeat if they failed to win this championship against an unsuccessful AC Milan, poorly planned by the management, and against other great teams sunk by mega-chairmen with delusions of grandeur.

Conte cannot fail to remember that negative decisions by the referees took the championship away from Milan and gave it to Turin, just as Juventus fans will not forget that, in Perugia, they wanted to conclude the match when the pitch was like a swimming pool. Juventus’s defeat gave the championship to Lazio.

The 2012 championship is like the battle at Waterloo, we can confirm the decline of Italian football, the crisis of leaders in various sectors of the entire system and the financial disaster. It all seems wrong, it all has to be redone.

In Turin, the new stadium is the height of excellence, but as for the team and the style, the Juventus of the past is nowhere to be seen. But it is easy to see Milan winning the league, and the Champions league. Of the geriatric institutions.