Calcio Debate: Juve Conspiracy Continues?
Yesterday afternoon Juventus had three more controversial decisions go against them at Parma. Carlo Garganese asks when this is all going to stop…
zoom - galleria November 11 is supposed to be a day of peace and a time of remembrance for all the soldiers who lost their lives in World War One.
Unfortunately it only seemed to spawn more violence and pointless loss of life as Lazio supporter Gabriele Sandri was tragically, and it appears, accidentally shot dead by a policeman, following a fight between Lazio and Juventus supporters at a motorway service station near Arezzo.
Now I don’t want to comment extensively on these terrible events just yet as it is at this stage still unclear exactly what took place.
What is for certain however is that this tragedy and the ensuing chaos that saw the postponement of the matches at Inter and Roma, and the abandonment of the game at Atalanta, has overshadowed what would have been another refereeing uproar regarding Juventus.
Now I don’t want to sound insensitive here as it is clear that the death of a 28-year-old who had his whole life ahead of him, is far more important than the footballing controversies that took place later the same day.
However it is also important to note that Juventus were once again absolutely robbed by the referee during yesterday afternoon’s 2-2 draw at Parma.
A couple of weeks ago, following the scandalous 3-1 defeat to Napoli, I wrote an article outlining the never-ending list of so-called refereeing 'mistakes’ that have cost Juventus points this season, and came to the conclusion that there was a post-Calciopoli conspiracy against Juventus.
Yesterday three more decisions, two of them huge, went against the Bianconeri.
RAI television’s weekly show, 'La Domenica Sportiva’ analysed all three of these incidents and the conclusion of virtually all the pundits and guests were, like me, that Juve had again been cheated.
The first incident was just before half time when referee Gabriele Gava awarded a penalty for Parma for an apparent trip by Cristiano Zanetti on Brazilian striker Reginaldo.
Andrea Gasbarroni stepped up and buried his penalty to give the home side a 1-0 lead, however replays showed conclusively that Zanetti had made no contact with Reginaldo.
Juve striker Raffaele Palladino, who was a guest in the studio last night, said the following:
“It wasn’t a penalty - look you can see. Reginaldo wasn’t touched.”
The second incident took place in the 77th minute when Giorgio Chiellini slid in and won the ball with a strong challenge on Domenico Morfeo. While the pair were on the ground, Morfeo violently grabbed Chiellini by the face and the throat.
Despite the Juve man not reacting to Morfeo, and with the fourth official only yards away from the action, the referee decided to issue straight red cards to both players.
In truth the double sending-off probably helped Juve more than it did Parma, and the away side dominated the rest of the game, however Chiellini now faces a potentially costly three-match ban.
Finally there was the biggest incident of them all. Deep into stoppage time, Vincenzo Iaquinta thought he had grabbed the winner after rising to head a cross past Luca Bucci.
However Mr Gava controversially disallowed the goal for what many assumed must have been a push by Iaquinta on Parma defender Paolo Castellini. After the game Iaquinta could be seen asking the referee why the goal was disallowed, before then turning around in disbelief when told the answer.
“Someone told me that I had committed a foul on Castellini so I went and asked the referee,” said the ex-Udinese star.
“He told me that one of my team-mates had committed the foul. He just said it generically and would not tell me the name.”
La Domenica Sportiva naturally reviewed the incident at length and showed that the only other Juventus player who was anywhere near Iaquinta was David Trezeguet. Replays proved conclusively that Trezeguet, like Iaquinta, did not commit any foul, thus leaving pundits in the studio completely bemused as to the reason why the goal was disallowed.
I would like to stress once again that all these controversies are only of minimal importance, when compared to the tragic loss of a young man’s life.
However the show must go on as they say, and it is quite clear that Juventus are continuously being penalised game after game. If you were to add on the number of points that the Bianconeri have lost due to refereeing 'errors’ this season then they would more than likely be sitting at the top of the league right now.
http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=478259
(only kidding!)
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