Someone has reacted greatly to that article today...
Here is the reaction:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Defence Of Juventus...
Being a regular follower of Italian football, I have always perceived a hefty anti-Juventus bias in Sheridan Bird's regular 'Gazzetta' features, so it came as no surprise to see point number 10 of his 'Ten Things We'll Like To See In Italian Football This Season'. Perhaps these blinkers have kept him from seeing and/or reporting on the following facts:
- the referees accused of fixing Juventus matches were all absolved of any wrongdoing. The only referee banned (De Sanctis) was done so for a match that neither involved nor affected Juventus.
- There was no proof that Juventus fixed a single match, and the court of appeals president admitted as such publicly. The court nevertheless relegated Juventus to Serie B for 'fixing the whole 2004-05 season'. They have yet to explain how it is possible to fix a whole season without fixing a single match.
- Juve were revoked their 2005-06 title even if there never was even any suspicion of wrongdoing in that season. The interim president of the Italian federation Guido Rossi, who used to be a member of Inter Milan's board, assigned this title to...Inter Milan!!
The press and pundits who had built up the whole case were the same people who looked the other way when Inter were playing a player with a false Italian passport to bypass the limit on the number of foreign players (Alvaro Recoba), and when Roma's president sent Rolexes to all the referees for Christmas a few years back. Neither Inter nor Roma were ever penalised for these incidents.
They are the same people who are still looking the other way now that AC Milan are still in both Serie A and the Champions League after their club official was intercepted in a phone call to a linesman directly asking him to favour AC Milan. None of the Juventus officials' phone calls intercepted (on which the case against them was built) was even made to a referee or linesman.
Juventus being relegated to Serie B had been decreed and known even before the sham trial began - the judges were reappointed by the aforementioned Mr Rossi just before the trial, and to make sure that the accusations stuck, clubs were not allowed to either call witnesses OR bring any evidence for defence (with the excuse that there wasn't enough time - fair trial isn't it?). After three months of media frenzy fed by people of Sheridan Bird's ilk in the press, public opinion in bars up and down the country would never have accepted a judgement favourable to Juventus, so Juventus were sent down regardless of the evidence available.
So maybe Mr Bird should change his point 10 to
'Non-match-fixing cheats Juventus Football Club playing in Serie B for being accused of being match-fixing cheats, as a punishment for being too successful and not allowing AC Milan or Inter Milan to win anything.'
I know this is Italian football not the Premiership, so this has about as much chance of getting published as a pro-Chelsea letter on an Italian website,
but just trying to educate a few people while venting some anger.
James (Juventus in case nobody noticed) Micallef, Amsterdam
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8744_1415066,00.html