Sunday 9 May, 2010
Blog: Jerkonomics
Everyone condemns the escalating tension in Italian football, but Susy Campanale notes people never miss a chance to act like a jerk
Italian football has always been a hotbed of tension, passion and borderline insanity, but really this season it is going too far. Everywhere you turn there is sport treated like warfare, whether it’s Lazio fans on a suicide mission to blow up Roma’s Scudetto hopes or Francesco Totti going ninja on Mario Balotelli. Everybody blames everyone else, but the truth is people never miss a chance to act like a jerk.
Take the Coppa Italia Final. Inter won fair and square, we saw the ‘old’ Roma of petulant, childish behaviour that was so familiar before Claudio Ranieri took charge. The Coach spoke highly of his opponents after the final whistle and was a perfect example of fair play. So did Marco Materazzi really need to gleefully thank Philippe Mexes on camera for the “helping hand” on Diego Milito’s goal? Did Luca Toni have to moan about the referee when quite frankly Nicolas Burdisso should’ve gone off in the first half for a series of awful tackles? Was it entirely necessary for Cristian Chivu to make a lewd gesture to his former fans, or for Rodrigo Taddei to clatter into Sulley Muntari when the ball was lost? People, you are not helping.
Then Jose Mourinho weighs in. Ranieri makes a fairly valid point about the “ticking time bombs” of the Special One’s Press conferences, which are quite obviously designed to create a siege mentality. Hardly a new insight. So did Mou really have to respond by dragging up the same ‘loser’ comments about Chelsea he made when he first arrived in Italy? This had nothing to do with the debate at all. People ask why Mourinho is so revered in England and yet despised in the Italian media – it’s because of statements like that, the same ones he made without prompting the moment he touched down in Milan. Ranieri is a gentleman and he does not deserve such low blows.
It goes right the way through Serie A, this seemingly irresistible urge to act like a total jerk. Genoa-Milan must be played behind closed doors, because 15 years after a tragic event, the home fans still won’t allow the Rossoneri into the city without threatening violent repercussions. Livorno-Lazio is more like a political rally than a football match. Fiorentina fans have pledged not to turn up to the stadium for the derby with Siena, but police are on high alert because these same supporters would be willing to get out of bed for an arranged fight with visiting ultras. Andrea Pirlo childishly stated on camera he was cheering on Barcelona against Inter in the Champions League semi-final for no reason other than pure spite, while Totti's infamous thumbs down after the Rome derby did nothing but inflame an already tense situation. And we wonder why the fans are so vindictive...
Everyone is so quick to condemn the climate of tension in Italian football, but who is ready to take a step back and stop fuelling the fire? And yes, before anyone writes in, I delight in winding people up too, but the media only report on what the Coaches and players say. If they start acting with decorum, so will the Press. We'd love to write about football, it's just there is precious little of it around at the moment amid the verbal fisticuffs.
http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/sc112.html