No Justification For The Crying Game!
In this Goal.com Guest Editorial, Gavino Nieddu takes issue with the sore losers and conspiracy theorists so swift to attribute Juve's consistent success in Serie A to alleged bribery and corruption rather than better footballers and superior footballing tactics ...
That’s it, I’ve had it. You people (magazines, newspapers, highlight shows, websites) have succeeded in ruining what was once a credible sport. I love Serie A but the lure you have all helped create around the league has reduced it to a joke. I live in Canada; the majority of my friends are hockey, football (North American), basketball, and baseball fans. They laugh at me when they see me get worked up about Italian soccer because we are now seen as whiners and babies. I hate to say it but they are right. No other fan of any other sport cries as much as the Italian soccer fan.
The Yankees dominate, yet no one blames the umpires. The Maple Leafs are in a 40 something year drought, yet it is never assumed to be the referees' fault. Juve take a commanding lead in the scudetto and suddenly blame needs to be placed somewhere...anywhere! You’ve tried the referee talk, the steroid attempt, and now the little clubs are even lending a hand, rather than just accepting that Juventus are Italy’s strongest squad. This has become almost too childish to discredit...almost.
I watch a lot of soccer. I do admit to be a sympathizer with Juventus especially in Europe but my squad is Sardinia’s Cagliari. When I watched Juve-Cagliari last May in the Stadio Delle Alpi I was in the away section wearing a Zola jersey waving a Sardo flag. So you can take your assumptions of whatever biases I may have towards Juve and set them aside. They do not apply.
This year I needed to satisfy my own curiosity. Was Juve really that dominant or was there some truth to the non-stop accusations? So I analyzed, and I wish you guys would too before making these accusations. I wondered if there were differences in disciplinary action between the big clubs. So I counted them. I counted 1 for every yellow and 2 for every red. I saw Inter had 70, Milan had 52, and Juve fell between the two with 61. In my opinion, over 35 games (so far) 9 cards don’t make a
So it wasn’t a “bookings” thing. “Maybe Juve was getting a lot more penalties than the others” I told myself. So I counted. Juve scored a whopping 3 all season, Inter 5, and Milan 7. These differences could alter the standings somewhat. Can we still say that Juve is being favoured though? They have the least; remarkably Milan is again in the best position. So I asked myself “Is it possible that Juve has faced far fewer penalties than the others?” seeing as I had heard this claim in the past. So I counted. Juve have faced 3, Inter and Milan both faced 2. No real significant difference here but it certainly can’t be said that Juve are favoured seeing as their position is once again less favourable than Milan’s or Inter’s.
We all know there is more to this, so let’s at least try to count the times that points have been acquired dubiously. This is difficult to quantify since it is somewhat opinion based, but it comes up too often to be ignored. Remember that Del Piero goal that was offside against Udinese? That was a win for Juve that should have been a tie, I can admit it. That means Juve got an extra 2 points undeservingly that game. I also noticed a tie against Cagliari that has been deemed corrupt because of the “questionable” 5 minutes of injury time needed to draw. Frankly, despite being a Cagliari fan even I understood the 5 minutes. There were penalties (against Juve) and red cards that day that pushed the game farther into injury time, it happens. Let’s count it though, just to humour the Anti-Juventino. So they got an unjust point for a total of 3 extra points. Now to be fair, we have to mention the obvious penalty on Ibra that the referee “didn’t see” at Chievo costing Juve a possible win. That day they took home 1 point and left 2 on the field. In the end their point surplus is a staggering 1 after 35 games.
Not a single refereeing decision all year cost either Inter or Milan points. Go ahead, try to bring up an example and I’m sure FIFA regulations will disagree. I did however, find a few occasions where the opposite occurred. Remember Milan’s dubious 5 minutes of injury time resulting in an Inzaghi goal? It was favouritism for Juve, why not Milan then? Chock up a 2 point surplus for Milan. Inter though is far worse. I saw a number of questionable goals/penalties, and wrongfully called back goals earn them wins against Lecce, Cagliari, and Treviso and a tie against Lazio for a surplus of 7 points. Disagree? Go ahead but good luck proving Juve were more favoured than either of these two clubs.
Not too long ago the doping issue arose. All Juve’s coaches were arrested and embarrassed. The media was all over it. Then an Italian court of law found each of the accused not guilty and Goal.com didn’t find it interesting enough to write about. So that attempt didn’t work. Now we’ve got a new accusation. Italy’s “minnows” are letting themselves be beaten by Juve and playing their hearts off against Milan to “give” the scudetto to Juve. This one is by far my favourite.
“Why did Messina play so hard?”, maybe to avoid relegation, genius. Why did Treviso play so hard against Juve? Why did Cagliari do the same? Why do teams like Roma, Lazio, Chievo and Fiorentina always seem to have the game of their season against Juve? Juve are public enemy number 1 in Italy because they are Italy’s most successful team and every team that faces them brings their A game. Yet somehow it’s these very squads who have given Juve an edge? This one is beyond stupid.
I suggest you think back to the days when Miccoli played for Perugia under Juve ownership. Perugia managed to eliminate Juve from the Coppa Italia and tie them in the Scudetto. Guess who scored? Miccoli did in an attempt to get called up to the big squad. The little guys always try to impress against the big guns and no one is bigger than Juventus.
Nice try “paisan” but you’ll need a more credible story next time. I’m sure we’ll all hear it soon enough. It is too hard for an Italian soccer fan to digest that their team is not the best. I’ll be the guy that leads by example. My team is in the relegation battle. They rarely finish a game with 11 players on the pitch and as a result have the most bookings in Serie A with 105, and have the most booked player in the league (Daniele Conti). If they wind up relegated you won’t hear me crying about officials though, I guarantee it. But then I’m a man.
goal.com
Respect to this guy
In this Goal.com Guest Editorial, Gavino Nieddu takes issue with the sore losers and conspiracy theorists so swift to attribute Juve's consistent success in Serie A to alleged bribery and corruption rather than better footballers and superior footballing tactics ...
That’s it, I’ve had it. You people (magazines, newspapers, highlight shows, websites) have succeeded in ruining what was once a credible sport. I love Serie A but the lure you have all helped create around the league has reduced it to a joke. I live in Canada; the majority of my friends are hockey, football (North American), basketball, and baseball fans. They laugh at me when they see me get worked up about Italian soccer because we are now seen as whiners and babies. I hate to say it but they are right. No other fan of any other sport cries as much as the Italian soccer fan.
The Yankees dominate, yet no one blames the umpires. The Maple Leafs are in a 40 something year drought, yet it is never assumed to be the referees' fault. Juve take a commanding lead in the scudetto and suddenly blame needs to be placed somewhere...anywhere! You’ve tried the referee talk, the steroid attempt, and now the little clubs are even lending a hand, rather than just accepting that Juventus are Italy’s strongest squad. This has become almost too childish to discredit...almost.
I watch a lot of soccer. I do admit to be a sympathizer with Juventus especially in Europe but my squad is Sardinia’s Cagliari. When I watched Juve-Cagliari last May in the Stadio Delle Alpi I was in the away section wearing a Zola jersey waving a Sardo flag. So you can take your assumptions of whatever biases I may have towards Juve and set them aside. They do not apply.
This year I needed to satisfy my own curiosity. Was Juve really that dominant or was there some truth to the non-stop accusations? So I analyzed, and I wish you guys would too before making these accusations. I wondered if there were differences in disciplinary action between the big clubs. So I counted them. I counted 1 for every yellow and 2 for every red. I saw Inter had 70, Milan had 52, and Juve fell between the two with 61. In my opinion, over 35 games (so far) 9 cards don’t make a
So it wasn’t a “bookings” thing. “Maybe Juve was getting a lot more penalties than the others” I told myself. So I counted. Juve scored a whopping 3 all season, Inter 5, and Milan 7. These differences could alter the standings somewhat. Can we still say that Juve is being favoured though? They have the least; remarkably Milan is again in the best position. So I asked myself “Is it possible that Juve has faced far fewer penalties than the others?” seeing as I had heard this claim in the past. So I counted. Juve have faced 3, Inter and Milan both faced 2. No real significant difference here but it certainly can’t be said that Juve are favoured seeing as their position is once again less favourable than Milan’s or Inter’s.
We all know there is more to this, so let’s at least try to count the times that points have been acquired dubiously. This is difficult to quantify since it is somewhat opinion based, but it comes up too often to be ignored. Remember that Del Piero goal that was offside against Udinese? That was a win for Juve that should have been a tie, I can admit it. That means Juve got an extra 2 points undeservingly that game. I also noticed a tie against Cagliari that has been deemed corrupt because of the “questionable” 5 minutes of injury time needed to draw. Frankly, despite being a Cagliari fan even I understood the 5 minutes. There were penalties (against Juve) and red cards that day that pushed the game farther into injury time, it happens. Let’s count it though, just to humour the Anti-Juventino. So they got an unjust point for a total of 3 extra points. Now to be fair, we have to mention the obvious penalty on Ibra that the referee “didn’t see” at Chievo costing Juve a possible win. That day they took home 1 point and left 2 on the field. In the end their point surplus is a staggering 1 after 35 games.
Not a single refereeing decision all year cost either Inter or Milan points. Go ahead, try to bring up an example and I’m sure FIFA regulations will disagree. I did however, find a few occasions where the opposite occurred. Remember Milan’s dubious 5 minutes of injury time resulting in an Inzaghi goal? It was favouritism for Juve, why not Milan then? Chock up a 2 point surplus for Milan. Inter though is far worse. I saw a number of questionable goals/penalties, and wrongfully called back goals earn them wins against Lecce, Cagliari, and Treviso and a tie against Lazio for a surplus of 7 points. Disagree? Go ahead but good luck proving Juve were more favoured than either of these two clubs.
Not too long ago the doping issue arose. All Juve’s coaches were arrested and embarrassed. The media was all over it. Then an Italian court of law found each of the accused not guilty and Goal.com didn’t find it interesting enough to write about. So that attempt didn’t work. Now we’ve got a new accusation. Italy’s “minnows” are letting themselves be beaten by Juve and playing their hearts off against Milan to “give” the scudetto to Juve. This one is by far my favourite.
“Why did Messina play so hard?”, maybe to avoid relegation, genius. Why did Treviso play so hard against Juve? Why did Cagliari do the same? Why do teams like Roma, Lazio, Chievo and Fiorentina always seem to have the game of their season against Juve? Juve are public enemy number 1 in Italy because they are Italy’s most successful team and every team that faces them brings their A game. Yet somehow it’s these very squads who have given Juve an edge? This one is beyond stupid.
I suggest you think back to the days when Miccoli played for Perugia under Juve ownership. Perugia managed to eliminate Juve from the Coppa Italia and tie them in the Scudetto. Guess who scored? Miccoli did in an attempt to get called up to the big squad. The little guys always try to impress against the big guns and no one is bigger than Juventus.
Nice try “paisan” but you’ll need a more credible story next time. I’m sure we’ll all hear it soon enough. It is too hard for an Italian soccer fan to digest that their team is not the best. I’ll be the guy that leads by example. My team is in the relegation battle. They rarely finish a game with 11 players on the pitch and as a result have the most bookings in Serie A with 105, and have the most booked player in the league (Daniele Conti). If they wind up relegated you won’t hear me crying about officials though, I guarantee it. But then I’m a man.
goal.com
Respect to this guy
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It's a convenient construct that has become part of the fabric of Italian life -- and in particular, the social satisfaction of suggesting conspiracy.
It's become a complete crutch regardless of whatever the circumstances. It's as if people willingly put their hands over their ears, eyes, and mouths and recite the anti-Juve mantra like brainwashed monkeys, regardless of what's playing out before them. They'll just see what they want to see and ignore what's convenient to ignore to keep up appearances in their own minds.