Newsgroup: it.sport.calcio.milan
Titolo: [The Guardian] - Italians kick up a stink

The Observer e` il domenicale del Guardian, mi scuso con chi non puo` 
leggere l'inglese. Traduzione del titolo e`: "Gli italiani danno un calcio 
alla puzza" (che li circonda per lo scandalo).
Questo e` (imho) uno dei piu` begli articoli scritti su di noi, con nomi e 
cognomi dei personaggi e con il distacco che i nostri giornali non hanno (e 
forse non possono avere).
Sullo scandalo Moggi e Galliani ed il Milan etc, dice le cose come stanno: 
che forse anche noi verremo penalizzati, cosi` come Fiore e Lazio.
Poi parla di quando noi riuscimmo a risollevarci nel 1982 e dice il motivo 
del silenzio stampa: i giornali nell'82 dicevano che Paolo Rossi e Antonio 
Cabrini avevano una relazione omosessuale, per questo fu deciso il silenzio 
stampa. Mi chiedo come mai nessuno quando parla del mondiale '82 ometta 
queste cose. Forse si vergognano di quello che dissero.. mah.
____________________________________________
Italians kick up a stink
Amy Lawrence
Sunday May 28, 2006
The Observer
Everything they do, everywhere they go, the smell follows them around. They 
cannot shake it off. The Azzurri gathered last week to show off their chic 
and shiny Dolce & Gabbana suits for the World Cup photocall, and the smell 
was there. They sat to take some pre-tournament questions from the media, 
and the smell was there. They turned up for the launch of their upbeat song 
for Germany - by a band with the magnificently appropriate name of 'Pooh' - 
and the smell was there.
The stench of corruption is embedded in the Italy camp. During public 
appearances nobody talks about the World Cup. There is no debate about who 
should play up front, or what system best suits the team, or how many points 
they require from a devilish group also containing the Czech Republic, the 
United States and Ghana. The only topic up for debate is the scandal that 
has dominated the headlines since tapped telephone calls revealed Luciano 
Moggi, Juventus's overlord, was pulling match-fixing strings. It is the 
first item on the evening news, above politics, religion and human tragedy, 
which is most unusual in Italy, even for such a football-obsessed country.
With a massive investigation under way, a wave of resignations and potential 
relegations are the talk of calcio and beyond. Juventus, Serie A champions, 
are expected to be demoted, conceivably sent down to the fourth division, 
although they may wriggle their way into the second tier. AC Milan, Lazio 
and Fiorentina are also at risk of serious punishment. And there might be 
more to come, as the authorities continue to rake through the dirt.
Yesterday Guido Rossi, the man given the task of investigating the scandal, 
told Gazzetta dello Sport: 'I exclude the possibility that it will all be 
brushed under the carpet. We have to go deep into this, very deep. There 
isn't just the surface that needs looking at. There is hardly anything that 
works as it should do. Who stays in and who goes out [of Serie A next 
season] will be decided by the disciplinary procedure, which will not be 
impeded by anything or anyone.'
Thirteen members of Marcello Lippi's 23-man Italy squad, including Luca Toni 
who scored 31 goals for Fiorentina this season, come from the four clubs 
currently feeling the heat. Last week the captain, Fabio Cannavaro, in an 
act of spectacular folly, tried to defend his club, and Moggi, by writing 
off the Juve revelations as little more than 'chatter'. Nothing worse than 
what everyone is up to. He was quickly forced to face the press to retract 
his comments and clear up any 'misunderstanding'. Keeper Gianluigi Buffon, 
who spent some time away from the group as he was questioned over his heavy 
gambling on football results, now reckons he is in the clear. But if one 
dodgy betting slip turns up he will be ejected from the squad and will face 
a minimum 18-month ban from football. As for Lippi, the coach himself is an 
old associate of Moggi - their two sons work together as agents for the GEA 
company being investigated by magistrates for 'illegal competition with use 
of threats and violence' - so he can hardly switch off from the crisis. 
Nothing like a World Cup to lighten the pressure.
'Lippi is fine, both Lippis are fine,' he said yesterday. 'About 20 days 
ago, I told my son that with all the stuff that was coming out, given who he 
had collaborated with, he shouldn't expect to stay out of it.
'If you are put under investigation then you are treated as though you have 
been condemned. We will see who has something to repent for and who doesn't. 
Some people might be found to have rushed to judgment and to then have been 
proved wrong - they might apologise for that but it never happens, never 
happens.'
Luca is a football fanatic who lives in Fidenza, a small town between Milan 
and Bologna in the north of Italy. He speaks for many ordinary supporters 
when he rails against 'the terrible shame' of the Italian game's rancid 
crisis. 'It is very difficult to have pride in our football. When the 
national team met up at their training camp at Coverciano, many fans went 
there to boo and insult them. And they were right.'
When news of the scandal first broke, the response from fans was symbolised 
by a vast banner that covered the curva where the Juventus hardcore 
congregate in the Stadio delle Alpi. Addressed to 'il tridente', the trio in 
charge of Juventus, which comprised Moggi, Antonio Giraudo and Roberto 
Bettega (all have subsequently resigned), it read: 'We are with you.' 
Surprise, surprise - the banner was provided by Moggi. Italy watches and 
waits to see if Adriano Galliani, the wheeler-dealer at Milan, will be 
another high-profile head to roll.
'Supporters are very tired of all this corruption,' says Luca. 'I hope this 
won't end up with nothing happening, everything swept under the carpet, as 
per usual in Italy. I hope Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina are all 
relegated. We can have a Serie A with Salerno, Mantova, Cesena. It would be 
the best thing for Italian football, to start again from zero.'
Might the investigation slow down during the World Cup, to avoid any 
potential calamities were any squad members to be charged? Apparently not. 
The Federazione Italiano Giuoco Calcio (FIGC, the Italian FA) wants this 
mess unravelled, and the game cleaned up, in good time for next season. The 
aim, if optimistic, is to have everything clarified by the beginning of 
July, so the FIGC can present a credible list of entrants to the Champions 
League and Uefa Cup.
This is not the first time that an Italian World Cup mission has been 
enmeshed in controversy. Dating back to 1934, when they hosted the 
competition, there were questions shadowing Italy's progress in a 
competition Mussolini deemed essential to win.
One of the players in the outstanding Austria team who were beaten by Italy 
in the semi-finals, remembers the referee heading a ball that was going out 
of play back to 'Mussolini's Azzurri' as they were known. In front of Il 
Duce, Italy beat Czechoslovakia in the final after extra time. Sceptics 
doubted that Italy would have won the trophy anywhere else.
Their coaching mastermind Vittorio Pozzo had a powerful answer, inspiring 
Italy to retain the World Cup when it was held in France four years later. 
Italy had to wait almost half a century to become champions again. Spain 
1982 was another World Cup experience played out against a backdrop of storm 
clouds.
Two years previously Italy had been rocked by another scandal, with more 
than 30 players and officials accused of taking bribes. Paolo Rossi, the 
golden boy of calcio and one of the most expensive players in the world at 
the time, was the most shocking name hauled up before the judges. He was 
banned for three years, reduced to two on appeal, and was back in the fold 
by the time Enzo Bearzot named his World Cup squad.
So far so good. But when Italy failed to spark in the group stage, with 
Rossi utterly unconvincing, and only squeezed through after three tepid 
draws against Poland, Peru and Cameroon, the criticism soon swirled out of 
control.
Dino Zoff, the veteran goalkeeper and captain of the 1982 team, articulates 
the problems they faced in the BBC's excellent series World Cup Stories. 
'Every news conference after a match became a court process, where instead 
of talking about football, it became a session for defending ourselves,' he 
recalls. 'After a meeting we decided that it was hopeless and that we should 
be concentrating more on playing football than on the excuses we needed to 
give to the people and to the journalists, and it seemed whatever we said 
they insulted us again.'
One of the team doctors, Fino Fini, takes up the story of a tournament 
showing no signs of a glorious finale: 'The weather was awful, it rained 
constantly, the hotel rooms were tiny. We were uncomfortable. If we decided 
to go out of the hotel, we were followed by the military service as they 
were worried that ETA [Basque separatist terrorists] might do something. 
Therefore it was unhappiness without end. Rain and control.
'Then we went to Barcelona, having got through the qualifiers, and the pitch 
was incredible. There was sun, animals that were flying around, little 
birds, and then a lovely vision of a beautiful city. We were in a lovely 
hotel, with room to manoeuvre and there were even beautiful women. But then 
something developed, that wasn't very nice, from the media.'
Relations deteriorated badly when the press gossiped loudly about the nature 
of the relationship between room-mates Rossi and Antonio Cabrini. An absurd 
game of Chinese whispers ended up with rumours that they were having an 
affair, because they had both been seen bare-chested on the balcony of their 
hotel room.
'It was so wrong, of course. They were real men,' says Fini. 'In every sense 
of the word. The men then got together and formed a union among themselves 
against the press. In doing this, against the media, we resolved all sorts 
of problems.' Bearzot, a gentleman in the mould of Alf Ramsey, felt it best 
to distance the players from their tormentors. He handled the situation with 
exemplary poise and had the total respect of his players.
Bruno Conti remembers: 'We had been happy to talk to the press, but we saw 
stories that were simply not true. The most horrible was that Rossi was with 
Cabrini, and that players were seen drinking in bars and shooting up drugs. 
This didn't go with everything we were trying to do and represent. This 
didn't go with the image of football as we saw it so we created a news 
blackout.'
The phrase silenzio stampa - a media blackout - was born. It continued 
throughout the tournament and was a blessing in disguise. Italians 
traditionally thrive on a siege mentality.
They faced the most difficult draw imaginable in the next round, reigning 
world champions Argentina and hot favourites Brazil. Italy came into their 
own. Maradona and company were smothered and conquered, before the turning 
point of the tournament saw Italy edge a classic win over Brazil. Rossi, the 
arch predator, shone as if he had never been away and helped himself to a 
hat-trick.
'When we went on to play Argentina and Brazil, we had no fear and we were 
playing with pride. We knew that we had to give it our all and leave our 
inhibitions in the changing room. The first goal was mental to me. It was 
the breakthrough moment for me. I had just been through a difficult and 
complicated time in my life. I had been out of action for two years from 
1980 to 1982. I played my first game just one month before the competition. 
For me it was like starting all over again.'
Italy and Rossi swept past Poland in the semi-finals and Germany in the 
final. Zoff reflects on how they overcame unseemly off-the-field 
distractions. 'It brought out not only the best in us but the maximum 
amount. It happens often to us here that when a team is attacked, it makes 
them perform miracles. But also the opposite can happen, as we've seen in 
the last World Cup and even before where, with the best luck in the world, 
we still did badly.'
So what of Italy 2006? In these extreme circumstances, there has been plenty 
of talk of reviving the spirit of 1982. Italy's World Cup heritage makes 
them a perennial favourite. They are the third most successful team of all 
time, behind Brazil and Germany, with three triumphs and two more finals to 
their name.
Their past two international tournaments ended in doom and gloom. They were 
humbled by South Korea in 2002 and went home at the group stage of Euro 2004 
when Denmark and Sweden drew to seal their fate. Lippi's squad suggests 
Italy are on the attack this time around. He has selected six strikers, all 
of whom are fit, and all of whom have Serie A experience.
To turn this crisis around is a very big ask. Compared to 1982, the team is 
not as good. The manager is not as respected. The crisis is much more 
relevant, more direct, now than in Bearzot's day when the scandal had blown 
up two years previously and was just about burned out. But, as they always 
say, Italians are at their best when they are under pressure.
Could they generate the kind of us-against-the-world unity necessary to 
restore some credibility to the Italian game? The reaction in Italy's squad 
is hard to predict. They could come together in the name of calcio, or they 
could be set for the biggest barrage of rotten tomatoes imaginable.
'World Cup Stories' on Italy will be screened on BBC2 on 11 June
Amy Lawrence
Carolina72
-- 
http://tinyurl.com/hjwfj
 

 and Bologna in the north of Italy.
wow
-- 
* Sir Biss *
Presidente ISCI-FC , co-campione FantaISCI 2005
Per non dimenticare MAI: 
http://www.inter.it/aas/img/6772.jpg
Moggi: "qui non siamo all'Inter"
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alla puzza" (che li circonda per lo scandalo).
Titolo intraducibile. Kick up/raise a stink e' un modo per dire
"protestare con forza", in pratica si usa quando qualcuno si incazza e
monta su un casino.
Ovviamente poi c'e' un gioco di parole con kick e con la "puzza" che
secondo loro circonda la nazionale ovunque vada, nazionale che tra
l'altro viene presentata dalle note di un gruppo chiamato "Pooh"
("pupu'"). Insomma, il messaggio Italia=Merda viene ribadito in tutti i
modi possibili. :)
- Wurrunna

 monta su un casino.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/kick+up+a+stink
per chi volesse approfondire...