Calcio Debate: How Many More Penalties Inter?
Inter Milan were awarded yet another penalty at the weekend – their seventh of the Serie A season. Carlo Garganese investigates the supposed favouritism towards the Nerazzurri.
"As usual, Inter needed help to win," blasted Parma Coach Domenico Di Carlo after his side’s hugely controversial 3-2 defeat at San Siro.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few days, I will briefly recall the events of Sunday evening.
League-leaders Inter seemed set for their first league defeat of the season as they trailed Parma 2-1 going into the closing stages. In the 88th minute Gialloblu veteran Fernando Couto raced back to clear a Zlatan Ibrahimovic effort off the line, and after meeting the ball first with his head, it inadvertently took the slightest of brushes off his forearm.
The referee sent off Couto, and Ibrahimovic scored the penalty. The Swede then struck again in injury time to hand Inter a dramatic 3-2 win, and thus maintain their seven point lead over Roma at the top of Serie A.
Domenico Di Carlo was not the only Parma figure to slam the officials after the game.
"Everyone saw a header by Couto; only the linesman also saw a handball by our defender," thundered President Tommaso Ghirardi.
"Then there was a clear penalty in our favour in the first half [which wasn't awarded].”
Roma boss Luciano Spalletti, who saw the chance of moving to within four points of Inter snatched away from him, had a similar view.
“There were some suspect incidents at the Inter-Parma game,” he told Radio Anch’io Sport.
Cristiano Lucarelli summed up better than anyone the way that virtually all non-Inter supporters felt about the situation when he said:
“Inter scored in the only way they could have – from the penalty spot.”
The truth is that if referee Andrea Gervasoni was going to apply the literal interpretation of the law, then he was probably correct to award Inter the penalty. However it is important to note that when Couto brushed the ball with his hand, it made no difference whatsoever to the trajectory of the ball.
Enough with the technical arguments though.
The bigger picture it seems is that referees are looking for any excuse to give Inter a penalty. You can bet your bottom dollar that any 50/50 decision (even 40/60 or 30/70 for that matter) in the opposition box is going to result in a spot-kick.
The week before Inter were awarded a quite ludicrous penalty against Siena after a harmless coming together in the box between Julio Cruz and Paul Codrea. The score at the time of the incident was 0-0.
Nobody can doubt that Inter, domestically, are the strongest team in Italy – that is self-explanatory. However the truth is that Inter have probably obtained 5 to 8 points more this season due to poor officiating.
With 19 games in Serie A gone so far, Inter have been awarded an incredible seven spot-kicks, with a number of these being highly dubious and more importantly, decisive. Thus at this present ratio – the Beneamata will win 14 spot-kicks by the end of the campaign. In return Inter have so far conceded just one penalty.
Historically it is well-known that the bigger teams obtain more favours from referees – this was evident in the past when Juventus in particular were accused of profiting from the odd-debatable decision.
The Calcio community is fast ganging up on Inter due to these repeated occurrences.
"It was a victory that could do more damage to Inter than a draw or a defeat," said La Repubblica's Gianni Mura on Monday morning.
Never was a statement more true, and there is a deep feeling of hatred really building up against Inter. In football there is winning and there is losing and teams need to know how to do both in the right way.
For the many years from 1989 that Inter never won a major title they were always bad losers. Now that they are the outstanding dominant side in Italy, it seems that they do not know how to win with grace and elegance either. Recent reports coming from Italy suggest that they have just declared a press silence, possibly because they feel they are being victimised by the media for the reporting on the Parma match on Sunday.
In simple terms – Inter are a public relations disaster!
What are your views on the number of penalties Inter are receiving? Are they being favoured by officials? Do you think that the Nerazzurri are a PR disaster? Goal.com wants to know what YOU think…
Carlo Garganese
goal.com
I get a feeling that CARLO GARGANESE doesn't like Inter whatsoever. But I think I see a CALCIOPOLI(the real one) in the horizon.
PS: Mark I think we should open a thread for random interesting articles, but I don't know where?
Inter Milan were awarded yet another penalty at the weekend – their seventh of the Serie A season. Carlo Garganese investigates the supposed favouritism towards the Nerazzurri.
"As usual, Inter needed help to win," blasted Parma Coach Domenico Di Carlo after his side’s hugely controversial 3-2 defeat at San Siro.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few days, I will briefly recall the events of Sunday evening.
League-leaders Inter seemed set for their first league defeat of the season as they trailed Parma 2-1 going into the closing stages. In the 88th minute Gialloblu veteran Fernando Couto raced back to clear a Zlatan Ibrahimovic effort off the line, and after meeting the ball first with his head, it inadvertently took the slightest of brushes off his forearm.
The referee sent off Couto, and Ibrahimovic scored the penalty. The Swede then struck again in injury time to hand Inter a dramatic 3-2 win, and thus maintain their seven point lead over Roma at the top of Serie A.
Domenico Di Carlo was not the only Parma figure to slam the officials after the game.
"Everyone saw a header by Couto; only the linesman also saw a handball by our defender," thundered President Tommaso Ghirardi.
"Then there was a clear penalty in our favour in the first half [which wasn't awarded].”
Roma boss Luciano Spalletti, who saw the chance of moving to within four points of Inter snatched away from him, had a similar view.
“There were some suspect incidents at the Inter-Parma game,” he told Radio Anch’io Sport.
Cristiano Lucarelli summed up better than anyone the way that virtually all non-Inter supporters felt about the situation when he said:
“Inter scored in the only way they could have – from the penalty spot.”
The truth is that if referee Andrea Gervasoni was going to apply the literal interpretation of the law, then he was probably correct to award Inter the penalty. However it is important to note that when Couto brushed the ball with his hand, it made no difference whatsoever to the trajectory of the ball.
Enough with the technical arguments though.
The bigger picture it seems is that referees are looking for any excuse to give Inter a penalty. You can bet your bottom dollar that any 50/50 decision (even 40/60 or 30/70 for that matter) in the opposition box is going to result in a spot-kick.
The week before Inter were awarded a quite ludicrous penalty against Siena after a harmless coming together in the box between Julio Cruz and Paul Codrea. The score at the time of the incident was 0-0.
Nobody can doubt that Inter, domestically, are the strongest team in Italy – that is self-explanatory. However the truth is that Inter have probably obtained 5 to 8 points more this season due to poor officiating.
With 19 games in Serie A gone so far, Inter have been awarded an incredible seven spot-kicks, with a number of these being highly dubious and more importantly, decisive. Thus at this present ratio – the Beneamata will win 14 spot-kicks by the end of the campaign. In return Inter have so far conceded just one penalty.
Historically it is well-known that the bigger teams obtain more favours from referees – this was evident in the past when Juventus in particular were accused of profiting from the odd-debatable decision.
The Calcio community is fast ganging up on Inter due to these repeated occurrences.
"It was a victory that could do more damage to Inter than a draw or a defeat," said La Repubblica's Gianni Mura on Monday morning.
Never was a statement more true, and there is a deep feeling of hatred really building up against Inter. In football there is winning and there is losing and teams need to know how to do both in the right way.
For the many years from 1989 that Inter never won a major title they were always bad losers. Now that they are the outstanding dominant side in Italy, it seems that they do not know how to win with grace and elegance either. Recent reports coming from Italy suggest that they have just declared a press silence, possibly because they feel they are being victimised by the media for the reporting on the Parma match on Sunday.
In simple terms – Inter are a public relations disaster!
What are your views on the number of penalties Inter are receiving? Are they being favoured by officials? Do you think that the Nerazzurri are a PR disaster? Goal.com wants to know what YOU think…
Carlo Garganese
goal.com
I get a feeling that CARLO GARGANESE doesn't like Inter whatsoever. But I think I see a CALCIOPOLI(the real one) in the horizon.
PS: Mark I think we should open a thread for random interesting articles, but I don't know where?
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