Note: this is my regular column on Laziofever site.
So, it's all over. This time for real. Lazio is saved, home and dry, at least for the time being. Everything that needed to be said has been said, the accolades and gratitude notes were duly given out and now it's business as usual. Which means, more falsity, more hipocricy, more lies, distortions, cheating, cynicism...You name it.
Our well deserved win over Livorno was cast into shadow by the usual care bears of the contemporary establishment press never losing an opportunity to bash our beloved club and everything associated with it. First of all let me make one thing perfectly clear: those who brought the swastika(an ancient Sanskrit symbol of light, construstion and luck, corrupted by Hitler) to Curva Nord are disgraceful and should be locked up for quite a while. There is just no justification for that! But unsuprisingly, the media, in it's never-ceasing desire to throw mud at SS Lazio and still hurting at the fact that we exist, chose to ignore the context of the incident.
I won't talk about the simmilar reaction from the fans of the other bank of the Tiber or other tifoserie in Italy. They have nothing to do with this. What I would like to call the attentions of my readers to is the Livorno fans. Livorno's curva is the most politicised of whole Italy. Every home game at Armando Picchi looks like a Communist Party rally, with Red Flags and appropriate songs sung, hardly any Livorno FC insignia or a chant in favour of the players. Nothing wrong in that per se except the ideology that Livornesi support an idelogy that for decades was hell-bent on destroying Italian culture, way of life and the established elite of the Italian people and which is responsible for millions of deaths world-wide including many in Italy. Livorno fans bring flags of an ex-superpower, sing it's anthem even bring portraits of it's leaders with them. So how is a patriotic Italian supposed to react, other then singing «Fratelli d'Italia» at the top of his/her voice and bringing as many tricolori as they can, knowing how passionately Livornesi hate those symbols? But, as usual, the attempts to piss-off the opposition went well over the top. Irr leaders did condemn the swastika but the damage was already done. And hardly anybody will ask the obvious questions like, how could such a flag be carried into the stadium, doesn't security check every flag and banner etc. Thankfully, the calls for closing down Olimpico issued by self-righteous judge wannabes were scoffed by the disciplinary comitee. Which brings me to my second point...
By the time this column sees light we will know what kind of punishment for the incidents of Tuesday night caused by yet another disgraceful refereeing display(Markus Merk the best? What do the worst look like?). Predictably, the same dregs who went histerical over the actions of Curva Nord created the lynch atmosphere against Inter and it's fans demanding a severe punishment. There are many nominees for the We Have No Shame Whatsoever category concerning this but the Oscar goes hands down to milanisti who were quick enough to lecture and offend Inter fans conveniantly forgeting how they behaved in a simmilar situation not so very long ago TO THEIR OWN PLAYERS! But hey, what else can you expect from the shower whose club walks off in the middle of a Champions Cup football game and then demands the match to be registered IN THEIR FAVOUR! But I digress...
Now before someone starts being outraged at the first sentence of the previous paragraph, would they kindly explain how is it possible for the linesman to not see that head-butt by Shevchenko, the same Shevchenko who would go on to score the only goal of the game? How is it possible not to see the penalty on Cambiasso? Why was Inter's goal disallowed? Anoyone?
But those «mistakes» were just the last drop of disgraceful, self-serving acts by the footballing powers-that-be everywhere. Just take a look at the pick of the bunch:
1. The now-obvious conspiracy against Chelsea to prevent them from winning the Champions league. First the referee gives a life-line to Bayern in the first leg via a penalty even Bayern players could not believe it was given. Then in the second leg no less then 6 minutes of injury time was given(!) for no apparent reason except hope that Bayern will pull off another Inter-Samp miracle(and they damn-near did it!).And now we even learn from the mouth of an UEFA official that Rijkaard was in fact in the referee's dressing room during half-time of Barca-Chelsea and that Mourihno was right all along. But first he has to get a ban and a fine and get hit with torrents of abuse from non-entities.
2. Juventus gets found out for systematically doping players during a prolonged period of time and nobody does a damn thing about it. Sepp Blatter even says one should not take away their trophies won in that period.
3. The announcement that UEFA will not use video evidence against Shevchenko because «the officials did not sinal anything». Excuse me, but is that not the very purpose of video evidence, to catch what the referee can't? You couldn't make it up!
4. The top officials of a football club taking higest political and footballing office in the country thereby spitting in the face of all people fighting against the conflict of interest.
In light of all these facts, it is no wonder even the most mild-mannered fans, let alone the ultras, have had enough. How can anyone believe, after seeing the events unfolding, that Merk's blunders were honest mistakes? And to top it all, we now even have loud calls for Inter to be «made an example». Excuse me? An example of what exactly? Hipocricy of footballing forums? Their duplicity, double standards, even cover-up of their high crimes and misdemeanours? And who is to set the example? Those who lie through their teeth about what happened during Barca-Chelsea halftime? Those who apply the rules they themselves set depending on the club, player even country to be applied on?
If Inter gets a bigger punishment then Roma did it will be truly scandalous. It will also be a sign of definite corruption of governing bodies and an alarm for those still trying to save the game from the inevitable doom it faces if the present establishment still leads it. And if that happens, those who now hypocritically abhor flares will see that there are much, much worse things that can fly around.