Gigi Riva (FIGC): "Giacinto is clean"
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ROME – (ANSA) Hands off Facchetti. And how could anyone accuse an "angel"? Gigi Riva, Italy's all-time leading scorer and Giacinto Facchetti's international team-mate for many a match, lets out a roar of thunder: "I played over 100 games for Italy alongside Facchetti, me up front and him as the captain. Good days and bad days," he recalled as he spoke to ANSA on the phone, "but Giacinto was always the same: an extraordinary person, clean and honest. He was an example to us all, a constant point of reference, he was our angel."
And that is why, now that he has read the reasoning in Palazzi's report - which accuses Inter and in particular the club's then-president of sporting fraud - Riva admits: "I feel like smashing things in, it makes me so mad. Anyone who ever met Facchetti," continues the ex-Cagliari striker, "knows that he was a true man. I just can't see him in the role of someone who talks to referees in order to influence them. All those people who are saying things about him now would do well to keep their mouths shut because Giacinto was a simple, honest man who deserves respect."
Riva doesn't doubt the federal prosecutor's report, just the 'ratio' and its conclusions. "Maybe one day I'll be able to understand it but at the moment I find it impossible: what's the point in digging out a matter whose statute of limitations has passed and involving a person who is no longer alive, who can't have his own say?"
Riva's is not your standard act of defence, considering his historic battles in the name of Cagliari against the big clubs: "The big clubs have always dominated, it's always been like that," he recalls. "When we travelled to play Juve, Milan or Inter away, the ref would use the impersonal "tu" pronoun with us Cagliari players and the more respectful "lei" form with the opposition. But we would win in the end..."
Riva thinks it is impossible to imagine Facchetti trying to influence referees: "I'm not saying he didn't make those phone calls, they are in the documents, but it just isn't possible that Giacinto made them to gain an advantage. I can imagine lots of others doing that, but not him, absolutely not. He dedicated his life to the sport and the national side, and anyone that ever met him knows who Giacinto was. A true man. Hearing certain things really gets my back up." (ANSA)