AJC.com > Sports > Soccer blog > Archives > 2006 > July > 24 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USMass exodus in Turin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s nearly down to the wire on the appeals by four Italian Serie A teams to prevent demotion, and Juventus, at the center of it all, is begging to keep its last two titles. That’s what the Turin superclub’s lawyers argued Monday, among other things, as it faces possible financial disaster due to penalties related to one of the worst match-fixing scandals in the history of the game.
The appeals panel is expected to rule on Tuesday whether to uphold a decision that sends Juve to Serie B with a 30-point deduction, a ban on European club play and stripping it of the last two Serie A crowns. Fiorentina and Lazio also are going down with smaller points deductions, while AC Milan is up, albeit with a 15-poind deduction.
Juventus players aren’t waiting around for a final adjudication: Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson are off to Real Madrid, Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram are hooking up with Barcelona, and Patrick Vieira could be close to signing with Inter Milan. At this rate, only Buffon, Del Piero and Pavel Nedved have expressed an interest in staying with Juve, whose officials are claiming will be bankrupted. Here’s a good roundup of player moves and the match fixing appeals.
Even NPR offered this lengthy story today from its veteran Rome-based reporter, extending Off the Ball’s amazement at how soccer news continues to resonate in America after the World Cup.
This is an extraordinary story, to be sure, but I still maintain that the fairly good reception in the U.S. during the Cup reflects a deeper breakthrough on these shores than has occurred previously. There’s still a lot of discussion about ESPN’s coverage of the Cup:
“ESPN has a lot of money at stake in the sport, and decision-makers such as Scanlan and John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president of content, are hard-core world soccer fans. That’s good news for viewers, even those who disagree with the announcer selections. The final between France and Italy attracted 16.9 million viewers between ABC (11.9 million) and Univision (five million), the top show on television for its week. ‘Even after the U.S. was eliminated,’ Scanlan said, ‘fans were not turning away.’ “
Count ESPN as very bullish on soccer, then. That is a very significant development, indeed.
Two names new to OTB’s radar have expressed interest in bringing MLS to Atlanta, but this isn’t a new story. No mention here on whether they’ve checked out anything with the Silverbacks, who have been gradually building something out of nothing.
Yes, it would be great to have MLS here someday, but I’ve heard this (and written this) kind of story many times before. Owning and operating minor league baseball teams in small towns and cities is one thing; doing the same with top-division soccer in a scattered megalopolis famous for sporting indifference is quite another.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Henry
July 24, 2006 3:18 PM | Link to this
You are right Wendy. We will never see a MLS team here in Atlanta. Access to the games is just about impossible to many of us. If you build a stadium in Gwinnett you will see very few spectators from Fayette and Cobb County, and the same will be true if you build it in Cobb or Fayette County. Downtown Atlanta nobody wants to go, it is just to unsafe, just asked the few fans going there now. Even if the women ever get started (I heard in 2008, nay be 07) I dought they will play here in Atlanta.
By Chris
July 24, 2006 6:55 PM | Link to this
Transfer Rumor off the wire:
IN NEGOTIATIONS
By Wendy Parker
July 25, 2006 4:59 PM | Link to this
Update:
Fiorentina and Lazio will stay in Serie A, with point deductions, while Juventus is still in Serie B, but will start 17 points in the hole instead of 30.
http://www.ajc.com/hp/content/shared-gen/ap/GeneralSoccerNews/SOCItalyScandal.html
The appeals board had a chance to apply a mortal blow to match-fixing in Italy, but instead has given its worst offenders a chance to do it again. And five-year bans for the guilty individuals is nothing.
Don’t be surprised if this happens again.
By Nicholas Irwin
July 26, 2006 3:09 AM | Link to this
This is a truly ridiculous decision by the appeals board. I agree with you, Wendy. Not only will this happen again, but when it does, the judicial board won’t care about it then, either. And allowing AC Milan to compete in the Champions League is the most ridiculous thing of all. Throughout this entire thing, throughout all of Italian soccer, there has been no sense of taking responsibility for one’s actions at all. It has only been about “how can we get away with this,” “since Italy won the World Cup the judges should be lenient,” etc. It is beyond ridiculous. I quite frankly don’t see how the Italian league can be taken seriously as a major world soccer league now. Were I a member of any Italian team, I would get the hell out pronto. Is it really worth being in a league where everyone knows the games are fixed and the authorities don’t care? If UEFA had any balls whatsoever, they would immediately ban all Italian teams from European play for at least two years for this travesty of a decision, and quite frankly, if I were FIFA I would think seriously about banning Italy from the next World Cup.
Hell, the original decision was very lenient and really not all that acceptable either, although it’s now looking pretty good by comparison. Juventus should’ve been basically completely destroyed without any hope of return in the next 50 years. They should’ve been relegated to the lowest possible fully professional division and been given a 50-point deficit. This would then be reduced by 10 each year until gone. If they could somehow overcome the deficit and finish in promotion position, they would be allowed to do so, but they would still carry the appropriate deficit with them into the next division the next year. As for AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio, they should’ve all been given the punishment Juventus originally got: relegation to Serie B and a 30-point deficit. And hell, I probably would’ve had that reduced by 10 each year until gone, too, with the same promotion caveats that Juventus got in my punishment. And allowing any of these teams into Europe anytime in the near future is laughable. They all should’ve been given outright five-year European bans to make sure that, if by some miracle (or I don’t know…more match-fixing, maybe?), any of these teams got back to that level in the next five years, they still couldn’t go to European competitions.
Instead they’ve insured that AC Milan will win the title next year and be in the Champions League knockout round and Juventus will probably be back up in a couple of years and we can do it all over again. And they couldn’t give less of a damn about it. In fact, they’re happier this way! And what’s worse, Juventus still isn’t happy, because they think they should still be in Serie A. We can just quit covering that farce of a league altogether and be done with it, as far as I’m concerned.
By Henry
July 26, 2006 8:24 AM | Link to this
Nicholas, good appraisal what FIFA should do. Fat chance. Italy, just remember where the Mafia has it’s origin. Everything is fixed there. Just like the City of Atlanta. I was surprised that anything ever happened in that scandal, but some big shots resignations. I wonder if they had their hands in the assignment of the referees in the last World Cup. Who was the assignment official. Was he Italien?
In some other news closer to my countries’ soccer (USA, Germany, Brasil). Looks like Brasil decided to hire as their new national coach with no coaching experience, Dunga. Beckenbauer and Klinsman showed the world that you do not need a PHD in soccer coaching.
By Nicholas Irwin
July 26, 2006 12:40 PM | Link to this
Oh, and I forgot about Euro 2008. Italy should be immediately banned from that, too.
By Chris
July 26, 2006 1:31 PM | Link to this
Nicholas, nice to hear from you again.
By Nicholas Irwin
July 26, 2006 4:17 PM | Link to this
Thanks Chris. Yeah, I’m gonna have to ask for the name of Wendy’s rehab program next time. She seemed to be able to reload quicker than expected. At least the Braves started playing better pretty much the second the World Cup ended, so I guess my withdrawal wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
By Wendy Parker
July 26, 2006 5:47 PM | Link to this
Nicholas:
They’re coming to take me away, uh-huh. Sometimes I think I wasn’t away long enough, but too much has been going on.
The Italian soap opera got even crazier today as Inter Milan was ordained last season’s Serie A champs:
http://www.ajc.com/hp/content/shared-gen/ap/GeneralSoccerNews/SOCItalyScandal.html
What a way to win your first scudetto since ‘89 — by default.
Some of us here aren’t the only ones who think this resolution is awfully, awfully smelly. Oliver Stone could have written this, but it rings true to me:
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5815286
Rehab ain’t possible with all this bubbling around. The appeals board fell for the wailing that the Italian game would be in tatters if the punishments were upheld. A better performance than any of Italy’s divers at the World Cup.
I say the game isn’t worth saving if this is what they’ve got. Better to blow it up and start over.
One other thing: Brian McBride has called time on his U.S. career. What a terrific one it was.
http://www.ajc.com/hp/content/shared-gen/ap/GeneralSoccerNews/SOCMcBrideRetires.html
Soccer: The sport that never ends, never has an off-season and is in many ways more fascinating off the field than on it.
By Chris
July 26, 2006 9:20 PM | Link to this
Much I could say about Italia but I will pass (the land of some of my ancestors is one that has brought the world many beautiful things but can often be flawed and many decisions are driven by emotion). Look for my World Cup 2010 report from South Africa within the next two weeks if I can get to a PC. I have heard that they are soccer crazy down there. The love of soccer runs deep. While in prison on Robben’s Island Nelson Mandela used to watch the soccer matches among inmates from his solitary confinement until a wall was built and one of his only pleasures was taken away. In domestic news if you can, catch the MLS all-star game on August 4th when Chelsea is in Chicago. Wendy I think that might warrant a domestic mention. Did you catch Everton tonight against Columbus. Everton added some nice strikers this year and they might have the best strikers this year in Liverpool. Henry try to stay safe in dangerous and corrupt Atlanta while I am gone. I am out…
By Henry
July 27, 2006 7:50 AM | Link to this
I will Chris. Thats why I moved out into the boonies. Good luck on your trip.
By Henry
July 29, 2006 8:18 AM | Link to this
Well lets see how good of a coach Pereira realy is. Can he take a country like South Africa to the quarter finals in 2008? Good luck.
By Robert
July 31, 2006 8:35 PM | Link to this
Bring MLS to Atlanta website
http://www.bringmlstoatlanta.com/index.php?option=com_newsfeeds&catid=15&Itemid=7
sign the petition.
By Nicholas Irwin
August 2, 2006 11:31 AM | Link to this
Huge surprise. UEFA let AC Milan into the Champions League. This punishment is the least adequate punishment I’ve ever seen. I’m honestly beginning to think Italy wants their matches to be fixed and that UEFA is so worried about money that they couldn’t care less about it.
By Henry
August 2, 2006 4:04 PM | Link to this
Hi Nicholas. What else is new, Italy corrupt??? Nooooo!!!
By Phillip Krakow
August 6, 2006 2:35 AM | Link to this
I remember how angry Wendy revealed herself to be when China’s Air Force was not invited to fly its jets over the Rose Bowl in accordance with the USA’s jets as part of the festivities of the Women’s World Cup in 1999. Why weren’t China’s jets invited, too !?, she demanded to know. (gee, sweetheart, I think it was somethin’ to do with NATIONAL SECURITY !)
So, if the MLS ever brings a team to Atlanta, I nominate Wendy to be the person to arrange having Iran’s Air Force fly fighter jets over the stadium as part of the Atlanta franchise’s inaugural match festivities.
(Gee, why are those jets crashing into the stadium ? I don’t get it !!)
By Henry
August 6, 2006 8:15 AM | Link to this
Phillip, kind of over sarcastic, aren’t you. She is the only one at the AJC that cares about our most favorite game.
To the All-Star game. Little to much excuse from Morinho, the players are all in good shape. They just played like Brasil, and the All-Stars played like Australia. If our National team had played like the all Stars they would have gone further, despite the poor refereeing