Football and Scandal

This summer, Italian football awoke to yet another scandal. Basically, for the last few years, there has been an illegal system right across the League, to arrange which referees and officials are assigned to matches. Whether in competitive games or friendlies, team officials were telephoning the referees association to make sure certain referees officiated their team's matches. The story finally broke after phone-taps were released in which Luciano Moggi, one of the Juventus board of directors, was heard arranging with the head of the Referees Association, as to who should officiate a match. As the story deepened, many many other teams were implicated. Juventus, Fiorentina, Milan, Lazio, and Inter being the biggest names involved, but it was a system right across the League. But, but, but, after the inquests and court cases, no evidence has ever emerged that a single referee has been bribed or paid off for throwing a match. The fact that teams were booking referees for FRIENDLIES, and that often, even after securing their prefered referee for a game, they'd still have bad decisions against them - goals disallowed, bad calls on offsides, games lost. Just as you'd have in an ordinary football match.
The clubs insist that they were only arranging for certain referees, because they wanted to make sure that the best, most respected referees were there to make sure that games were officiated in the most fair way, so no bad decisions could be made, so that their multi-million pound flair-players weren't beaten-up on the sly when an inexperienced referee was officiating.
Whilst I have no authority to say whether that is true or not, arrangements between clubs and the referees association should never have taken place. But the truth is, that it did.
Italy is a country plagued by stories of corruption - whether true or fabricated. It is a country that loves scandal, and loves conspiracy theories even more. So when a story breaks, it breaks big. Due to the nature of people, when you're an outsider looking at another country, your vision is always blurred by outdated stereotype. I think that Italy is a country that non-Italians like to look at and think "I'd like a house in Tuscany. The football's tactical. The food is great. The architecture is beautiful. It's a country so full of history. The people are so charming", but at the same time, they'll think "Italians are all so corrupt, they'd sell their grandmothers, can't trust them. Diving, fouling, greasy-haired..." and so on. In many ways, Italy is a country that outsiders love to hate (even to the extent of totally ignoring the problems that they imagine in Italy which are right on their own doorsteps. Corruption is rife everywhere, even in England's green and pleasant, and English footballers dive and foul as much as anyone else). For a proud Italian, these misconceptions, stereotypes, and inherent racist senitments are hard to bear. Italians want to prove to the world that they are a society who aren't governed by corruption (even if Berlusconi is voted in with rather alarming regularity!) So when a 'foreigner' looks at stories that emerge in Italy, they think corruption, the mafia, and they leap to the conclusion that the country is rife with unstoppable corruption on every level. Italy is a country that has to live with this image, and hates this image. So when a story of scandal breaks, Italian authorities act hard and harsh. Teams implicated in the 'Calciopoli' scandal would be punished.Whilst Inter managed to slime their way out of the story early on, Juventus, Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina were all told that they'd be fucked royally.

Due to various tribunals, fines and docked-points were imposed, and the final outcome was that Milan would keep their Champions League place, and be docked eight points - a costly slap on the wrists. Lazio and Fiorentina lost their chances to play in Europe, and were handed 11 and 19 point penalties respectively. Fiorentina are effectively battling from relegation as a result, which is hugely unfair. And Juventus, my little mountain team, were stripped of two league titles, demoted to Serie B for the first time in their history, and docked 17 points for the season. So even after 3 wins and 1 draw in the first 4 games of the season, we're still bottom of the table with -7 points. Whilst uncertainty dogged the summer campaign seasons of Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, who were unable to effectively reinforce and strengthen their squads, there was a crisis in Turin. Players wanted to leave, and were told they had to stay, to honour their contracts. Other players - heroes like Del Piero, Nedved and Buffon, said they'd stay, regardless. But the majority of players left for sunnier climes. Ibrahimovic, Vieira, Thuram, Emerson all left for Spanish sides or Inter. What hurt most of all was seeing Zambrotta leave for Barcelona, and even worse was seeing the world's greatest defender, Cannavaro, depart for Real Madrid for a paltry £5million.And meanwhile, the Scudetto badge, the mark of the Italian champions, was stripped off Juve shirts, and handed to Inter (who'd only finished third). Inter's spin-doctors immediately declared it the "Scudetto of Honesty", which is a joke, frankly. For years, Inter have been fielding players on false passports, and are a really shady organisation. Their owner, Massimo Moratti, is an oil tycoon, pouring millions on players each summer to try to buy the Scudetto, each year succeeding in buying a team of whingeing primadonnas who are incapable of winning a serious competition. So with Calciopoli raging, Inter began to rub their hands. With their opponents unable to commit to the activity of summer purchases, Inter plundered Europe. In particular, pecking over the not-yet dead body of Juventus, snapping up Vieira and Ibrahimovic in their vulture beaks. Fabio Grosso, Italy's World Cup winning left-back, arrived swiftly, with no-one else able to produce counter-offers.

Since Calciopoli, being a Juventus fan has been a difficult business - conversations in the pub turn into me defending my club, pointing out that it was a much wider system, pointing out that the FIGC (Italian FA) needed scapegoats, and we were it, and reiterating time and time again that Juventus were the strongest team in both those two seasons, and each season won the league Fair and Square on the pitch. We didn't need any help at all.

But on the other hand, I've proudly been a Juventus fan since Calciopoli. That feeling of injustice, the awful day when Gianluca Pessotto jumped from his office window at Juventus HQ. The pride in seeing seven Juventus players on the pitch in the World Cup Final. And the new open-ness about the club. Being a Juve fan at the moment, is very much like being in a fantasy novel, or even in the film, the Lion King! The rightful heir banished to another realm, whilst his evil uncle sits on the trone. But the heir isn't going to be away for long. Just long enough to build himself up, recoup and grow, and then he'll be back to take what is rightfully his.

But it's also a strange time in that, looking at the Juve team photo, I can't recognise half of the team. Youth players have been drafted back, and this season's team is exciting to support. With a new manager, new directors, a new stadium, and in a new league, it's a very exciting time to be a Juve fan. But I can't wait to get back to Serie A and bang a few heads.

And how about 'honest' Inter? What about their oily tycoon? Well, this week, it emerges that during the last few seasons, they've been paying for referees to be tailed by private investigators, and tapping phones. There have even been claims of Inter approaching referees to blackmail them. So, the FIGC are investigating at the moment.

And it looks like Inter's 'Scudetto of Honesty' - the only scudetto that they've 'won' since 1989 - will be stripped.

Which is fantastic news.

They may even be docked points for this season, which is even better news. In my opinion, the current Inter aren't going to win anything this season, and won't do for a long long time. Especially when we're back in A.
FORZA JUVENTUS!

Sir Viv.

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Hello again!
Today, I'm just posting a little something new - the lyrics to an obscure song (and rare to find), by my hero Vivian Stanshall. Most people probably only know him for his days with the Bonzo Dog Band in the 1960s, but he was so much more. A song-writer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, poet, author, comedian and performer. He is, to me, one of the greatest Englishmen to have ever lived. He died on March 5th 1995. He'd fallen asleep, dropped his cigarette into his beard, and then asphixiated before the house burnt down around him. I can't attach the file, I'm afraid, but I did try!

the Future.

If I had the confidence,
The courage or the common-sense,
The hutzpah or some happiness,
Then I could face the future.
If I could find a kindred spirit,
Wouldn't mind a friend to share it,
I'm the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
All that's second best in me
Is crying out for sympathy,
A nagging insecurity
Is begging me - don't try.
If there were an easier way,
A magic I could try,
Or someone else to do this thing for me,
Then fear must say its prayers...
Tonight.

IMPORTANT NEWS!

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Two pieces of important news for you today, Sportsfans.
These two breaking stories are on vastly differing subjects. The first is Charity & Depression, and the second is Football and Scandal - which actually I've had to cut & paste to another post, so actually, only one breaking story, and the other is something you'll have to search for... Are your appetites sufficiently whetted? Yes? Well pull up a chair, settle back, pour yourself a beer, relax, and I'll begin.
Just like Jackanory, and his cousin, John Dory...
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1.) Charity and Depression.
About 3 months ago, I stopped shaving. Usually I'm crisp, clean shaven, short haired, and look the very model of a modern British citizen. But after 3 months of ignoring my razor, I now look like a freakish beardy - which is what I suppose I now am. The reason I've not been shaving, is because I intend to dye all this mass of hair magenta. Yup. The whole beard, all the hair. Magenta. I think my hair-mass weighs about four kilos now, so I will look quite a shocking sight. But this act of shameless dyeing is for a purpose, not just a change of looks. I'm dyeing it for charity - for Primhe, a charity which deals in primary healthcare for people with mental disabilities & Depression. Depression affects so many people (you probably don't need to look further than a family member, the man who you see at the train station each morning, your best friend, the lady at Tesco, the man next to you at the bar...), all trying to deal with things in their own way. Whilst depression is ultimately something that individuals have to sort out themselves, Primhe is there for people at every stage along the way. I've been wanting to help Prime for quite a while - initially it was to provide some of my cartoons for Primhe leaflets & publications, but I feel that by dyeing all my hair so that I look like Animal from the Muppets, is a much more public way of helping out. I really hope to advertise what I'm doing, to highlight that Primhe is there. So many people don't think that there are people out there to help them.
Even if I can't raise much money, if I can raise awareness, that would be great. After Stephen Fry's recent TV programme, and the amount of feedback from the press in its wake, Depression is really in people's minds at the moment (if you excuse the pun), and I really think (and hope) that people are starting to think of Depression as a real and tangible thing - a problem that many many people have to live with, and not an some affliction to excuse people's tantrums. Obviously, there are some people who don't understand, but as long as there are TV programmes, and charities out there, being loud & open about things, then that is a good thing. If anyone wants to find out more, please visit the Primhe website at www.primhe.org (which is just about to be updated), or send me an email - also if you'd like to sponsor me, then do get in touch. Just leave a comment with your email address, and I'll get back to you.