Paying the penalty
After having two nonexistent penalties awarded against them at Napoli, are Juventus still paying the price for Calciopoli?
They were arguably the sort of penalties that Juventus would have been given in years gone by. Generous, soft and nonexistent, spot-kicks which gave Napoli victory at the San Paolo on Saturday night. But those ‘gifts’ were much more significant than just the three points – they were the latest illustration that the Old Lady of Italian football are still paying for their Calciopoli past.
So far this season, the Bianconeri have conceded five-and-a-half penalties – one was awarded and then retracted at Cagliari – in just nine games. Of those decisions, all but one were more than debatable. Mix in the doubts over the legality of Francesco Totti’s first goal against them in Week 4 and why Antonio Nocerino was not awarded a penalty seven days earlier against Udinese, and you can see why the club feel hard done by.
Inevitably, as this is Italy, rumours of a supposed plot against Juve have already surfaced. That’s probably a little too far fetched at this stage. After all, it would have been easy for the men in black to disallow David Trezeguet’s strike against Torino and Vincenzo Iaquinta’s goal in Florence. However, it’s clear that certain officials are having trouble taking charge of Juventus this season.
Mauro Bergonzi’s performance at the weekend was a clear indication of the way some men are opting to handle the Old Lady in this post-Calciopoli climate. Big clubs, prior to the match-fixing scandal, were traditionally seen as being involuntarily favoured by referees due to a condition referred to as sudditanza psicologica – psychological subjection. Yet it seems that the Turin giants are now being judged with a kind of reverse sudditanza psicologica. With a number of refs understandably concerned that some of their honest mistakes may favour Juve, it’s easy to comprehend why an ‘if in doubt, blow against Juve’ philosophy is being used by them.
It’s a dangerous yardstick with which to rule by though. Punishing the already sentenced Juventus for the past misdemeanours of a management team who are no longer recognised by the present hierarchy is not only damaging to the club, but the game in general. It risks falsifying another campaign which has the potential to be the most exciting in years.
If the Italian game is to really move on and regain the credibility which it has been lacking in recent times, referees – and their assistants – must start making their decisions on what they actually see rather than what they perceive. They not only owe that to Juventus, but also to themselves and their fellow officials.
by Antonio Labbate
Buy on AliExpress.com
