12 July 2006

But It's Football That Suffers

As a quick follow up to the Italian football scandal. The other major problem for me about it is the fact that it is the sport that ultimately suffers. Who could blame any italian football fan if they forfeited their love of the sport after another huge scandal. How would you feel about following something you where deeply passionate about, only to find out that it is all just one big scam.

It's like when a kid finds out that the WWF (WWE now according to a well-informed mate) is actually just a soap opera, much like EastEnders or Dallas.

If you are a Juventus fan, can you really feel proud of your last two Scudetto's (Italian Championships, if they get to keep them that is). And what about all the other fans of the other teams, now wondering if their titles have been won fair and square in the past, only safe in the knowledge that their chairman was able to keep anything under wraps.

And the people who should feel most gutted of all. The fans of teams who have been relegated by relatively slim margins. What if a crocked ref had given a dodgy penalty to one of the teams implicated in the scandal in the last year or two, and that penalty had caused you to drop points in a game, and as a result your team has been relegated. It would put you off football for life.

As for me, it's definitely dampened my appetite for the "beautiful game". Hopefully that'll free some time up for me to get on with something useful in my life. Scandals can have a positive side.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now it's official... three team go down and loose a lot of points and some titles. No one seems to go to prison, but people are not allowed to work in the industry for a while... The verdict is not as hard as expected and demanded but considering the history and weight of these clubs still pretty tough I find.

Suspicious once again that AC Milan (Berlusconis club) got away with a relatively mild sentence, even snatch the title from 2005 from Juve... for me it's absolutely incomprehensible that this man is still allowed to interfere in European politics!