When French midfielder Zinédine Zidane flattened an opponent with a spectacular head butt during the final match of this year's World Cup, seen live on television, critics said he had ended his career in disgrace. But the next day, Jacques Chirac, French president, was standing by Zidane's side, offering moral support. Sponsors, too, were indifferent to his unsportsmanly behaviour. And Zidane could even be invited to join the board of directors of French food group Danone.
Fans and sponsors, it seems, are very forgiving of bad behaviour. Especially when you are one of the best.
This thought must surely be in the mind of Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, newly appointed chairman of Juventus, the Italian football club recently relegated to Serie B and stripped of two league titles after it was found guilty of match fixing. On Friday, he will present the club's half-year results for the six months to June 30, which will reflect happier days.
Mr Cobolli, 61, has been brought in to do a bit of belated spring cleaning. Gone are the club's chief executive Antonio Giraudo and general manager Luciano Moggi, both personally inculpated in the scandal, and a fresh nine-member board was put in place in late June.
But Mr Cobolli's job is more than a simple corporate turnround.
He has been thrown into the deep end and has little time to produce results. The Italian league's season is scheduled to start on September 9 and he is straining to complete his second appeal of the club's relegation in time.
Meanwhile, Juventus risks haemorrhaging top players, ticketsales and lucrative sponsorship deals.
Does Mr Cobolli have what it takes to restore Italy's richest and most successful club to its former glory?
Although he is a life-long Juventus supporter, he is new to the football industry. For the past 10 years, he has worked as chief executive of Gruppo Rinascente, the retailer group, where he earned a reputation as an efficient but low-profile manager.
The fact that Mr Cobolli is an outsider was meant to be a clear sign to sports (and government) authorities that Juventus is serious about cleaning itself up.
AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio, the other clubs implicated in the match-fixing scandal, have done nothing to tidy their ranks.
He is a long-standing loyalist to Ifil, the Agnelli family holding company that owns 60 per cent of Juventus. He had been hired by Ifil to run its Rinascente business, where he gained a neat profit for his patrons when the retailer was later sold to Auchan of France.
The skill Mr Cobolli is likely to need most is diplomacy. After all, he must answer not only to Ifil but restore relations with sports authorities and government officials while also keeping an eye on the club's million-euro sponsors and media partners, its individual shareholders, its uneasy players and its tens of millions of supporters worldwide.
Then there is Mr Cobolli the fighter. When an appeals panel reduced sanctions against the other clubs accused of match fixing but failed to do so for Juventus, he defiantly stated that "there is absolutely no way we can accept this sentence" and promised to pursue all means to have the decision changed. Currently, the club is waiting for a decision by Italy's Olympic committee.
Nonetheless, his biggest contribution to the club will probably be as a level-headed businessman, looking out for his shareholders. So far, the club has successfully retained Nike as a sponsor as well as certain key players such as goalkeeper Gigi Buffon. But five players have been sold, mostly at a profit, and Mr Cobolli does not rule out more disposals at the right price.
Friday will also give Mr Cobolli a chance to outline his plans to protect the company's top line from too much erosion (he has said he hopes to limit the drop in revenues to 20 per cent) and where he plans to cut costs.
Whatever hardship the club has faced, the good news is that Juventus, like Zidane, is clearly a winner
. The team has won 28 
umpkin: umpkin: Serie A championship titles, two Champions League titles and three UEFA cups. And if Mr Cobolli makes the right moves, the club's 14m Italian fans are likely to accompany Juventus into Serie B and back to the top flight in a year or two.
By Ian Limbach
The Financial Times
---------------------------------------
I wish him a great amount of luck...
He's our difficult mission's man...
Fans and sponsors, it seems, are very forgiving of bad behaviour. Especially when you are one of the best.
This thought must surely be in the mind of Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, newly appointed chairman of Juventus, the Italian football club recently relegated to Serie B and stripped of two league titles after it was found guilty of match fixing. On Friday, he will present the club's half-year results for the six months to June 30, which will reflect happier days.
Mr Cobolli, 61, has been brought in to do a bit of belated spring cleaning. Gone are the club's chief executive Antonio Giraudo and general manager Luciano Moggi, both personally inculpated in the scandal, and a fresh nine-member board was put in place in late June.
But Mr Cobolli's job is more than a simple corporate turnround.
He has been thrown into the deep end and has little time to produce results. The Italian league's season is scheduled to start on September 9 and he is straining to complete his second appeal of the club's relegation in time.
Meanwhile, Juventus risks haemorrhaging top players, ticketsales and lucrative sponsorship deals.
Does Mr Cobolli have what it takes to restore Italy's richest and most successful club to its former glory?
Although he is a life-long Juventus supporter, he is new to the football industry. For the past 10 years, he has worked as chief executive of Gruppo Rinascente, the retailer group, where he earned a reputation as an efficient but low-profile manager.
The fact that Mr Cobolli is an outsider was meant to be a clear sign to sports (and government) authorities that Juventus is serious about cleaning itself up.
AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio, the other clubs implicated in the match-fixing scandal, have done nothing to tidy their ranks.
He is a long-standing loyalist to Ifil, the Agnelli family holding company that owns 60 per cent of Juventus. He had been hired by Ifil to run its Rinascente business, where he gained a neat profit for his patrons when the retailer was later sold to Auchan of France.
The skill Mr Cobolli is likely to need most is diplomacy. After all, he must answer not only to Ifil but restore relations with sports authorities and government officials while also keeping an eye on the club's million-euro sponsors and media partners, its individual shareholders, its uneasy players and its tens of millions of supporters worldwide.
Then there is Mr Cobolli the fighter. When an appeals panel reduced sanctions against the other clubs accused of match fixing but failed to do so for Juventus, he defiantly stated that "there is absolutely no way we can accept this sentence" and promised to pursue all means to have the decision changed. Currently, the club is waiting for a decision by Italy's Olympic committee.
Nonetheless, his biggest contribution to the club will probably be as a level-headed businessman, looking out for his shareholders. So far, the club has successfully retained Nike as a sponsor as well as certain key players such as goalkeeper Gigi Buffon. But five players have been sold, mostly at a profit, and Mr Cobolli does not rule out more disposals at the right price.
Friday will also give Mr Cobolli a chance to outline his plans to protect the company's top line from too much erosion (he has said he hopes to limit the drop in revenues to 20 per cent) and where he plans to cut costs.
Whatever hardship the club has faced, the good news is that Juventus, like Zidane, is clearly a winner
. The team has won 28 umpkin: umpkin: Serie A championship titles, two Champions League titles and three UEFA cups. And if Mr Cobolli makes the right moves, the club's 14m Italian fans are likely to accompany Juventus into Serie B and back to the top flight in a year or two.By Ian Limbach
The Financial Times
---------------------------------------
I wish him a great amount of luck...
He's our difficult mission's man...
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