That 10-Letter C-word

July 19th, 2011 | by: elaine | Comments Off

While the amazing events were unfolding on the pitch in Germany 2006, incredulous events were unfolding off the pitch at home. That 10-letter C-word was being rushed through the “justice” system in Italy. Embarrassed by the juxtaposition of sheer class of the Azzurri and the apparent lack of class of a handful of club teams, the FIGC rushed the trial through, came up with a punishment and tried to move on.

But did they move on? And how did this affect the National Team?

My answer is no, they didn’t move on. They served a swift and harsh “justice” with one eye and both ears closed. Then they washed their hands and went back to sleep.

Meanwhile the rest of the world trivialized Italy’s World Cup victory, this scandal proof positive that Italians lie and cheat and dive. Even just frozen in that moment, Serie A lost a lot of value in the eyes of the rest of the world.

But then Serie A started hemhorraging players, yes even World Cup winning players like the captain, Fabio Cannavaro. Not to mention so many of the top non-Italian players, as none of them wanted to play in a league that was so corrupt. And since then, too, a big migration of top coaches, all deciding to stay clear of Italian football. You can blame the scandal, but if you look a little harder, it was how the scandal was dealt with that was the most shameful.

Justice doesn’t happen overnight. Justice doesn’t happen when many teams are implicated and few are punished. Justice doesn’t look like the most harsh of punishments being scaled down to simple points deductions for most, and the most harsh punishment landing only on the shoulders of a few. Justice isn’t served when other teams benefit from the punishment of others.

For five years, Italian football has limped along with this rotting, pus-filled abscess visible to everyone but themselves. Along the way, more evidence was found. It implicated not only the team that benefited the most from the “justice,” but many more teams as well. It showed that justice had not been served, but if it had, many teams would have been relegated, and ironically, the one that was relegated should not have been. Not only was justice not served, but a great injustice was served instead. Talk about twisting the knife in one’s back.

But we can’t relegate half or more of Serie A, can we? The FIGC were immobilized with fear at the magnitude of this new evidence, not knowing what to do. So they waited. Until conveniently, the statute of limitations allowed them to let themselves off the hook. The same mentality that led them to rush through the first trial was being used to pretend the cancerous growth was not spreading throughout calcio. So hiding behind a flawed legal system and weak excuses, they have thus far opted to ignore any semblance of justice and turn a deaf ear on those who wanted to resolve the issue.

But I digress, as I only pointed out a few things that affected the National Team. For it was our own FIGC who re-hired one Marcello Lippi as coach of the Azzurri. The same bunch of people who kept Lippi on despite horrible results going into the World Cup last year. And the same group of people who couldn’t understand how our boys could crash and burn at said tournament. The same people who sat back and did nothing to try to compensate for the loss of morale, of image, of ticket sales, of players etc. in Italy for four whole years and then blindly expected a repeat of 2006.

Well guess what, FIGC, the way Italy won in 2006 and then failed to progress past the group stage is physical evidence of what everyone knows about how you handled that 10-letter C-word then and now: EPIC FAIL.

And as if you didn’t need further proof of how you failed a nation and its football, try this on for size: before the 2nd trial could even come to any conclusions or rulings whatsoever, a new matchfixing scandal broke. Seems that simple calls to refs were child’s play. Since justice was never served then, these kids have decided to drug the players’ water bottles, amongst other things. I mean, why not? Everyone knows the FIGC only punish randomly, and those most guilty never feel it, so why not raise the bar? The most corrupt have the best odds of getting off without any punishment.

It’s not as if the 10-letter C-word was the first matchfixing scandal in Italy or elsewhere, and sadly, nor will it be the last. It’s not like in Turkey right now where the jails are filled with people who are presumed guilty, right? And yet somehow that seems more fair. Because this 10-letter C-word was hardly the biggest crime. The injustice has since been served in heaping bowlfuls by the FIGC affecting the image of Italian football, the financial success, the fans, the players who will play, and yes, the National Team.

Trying to sweep it under the carpet has not worked. It needs to be resolved, we need to demand some semblance of justice from the FIGC, or scandals like this new one will multiply and weaken Italian football even more. Enough is enough. But who am I kidding? The FIGC is more corrupt than the people they are trying to punish. So unless we have money, power, or something to blackmail them with, we can expect the status quo from the same people who hire our Azzurri coach and oversee calcio. We can only hope that our boys in blue can rise above it all and prove themselves on the pitch, against all odds. Also, maybe we should also hope that pigs will fly soon, because with this level of incompetence at the top, they have a very steep mountain to climb until they no longer reek of the stench of Calciopoli.

Elaine also spews venom on Twitter • follow her occasional tweets @ItaliaWCB