|
The Italian football season is about to get under way accompanied by the usual chaos. The fixtures were only released last week. Two years ago the whole campaign was postponed for a fortnight because of appeals, protests and litigation and the mess could only be sorted out by putting two extra clubs into top league Serie A. Since then, stringent new conditions governing the financial health of clubs have been introduced, the penalties causing chaos. At one stage during the summer, only seventeen clubs had been assigned to the twenty club top flight.
Genoa fans are feeling particularly sore. They were promoted from Serie B to Serie A last season, but look like ending up in Serie C1 with an initial three point penalty. Senior directors were found to have paid Venezia officials to fix the result of their final match. Evidence against them included a Venezia employee leaving the business premises of the Genoa president with €250,000 cash in a holdall, and police recordings of frantic conversations between the bosses of both clubs after Venezia equalised in the match. Fans from the port town have rioted in the streets and disrupted an Italian cup tie.
Torino have also not been allowed to take their promotion place because of their messy finances. Treviso, who finished fifth in Serie B and Ascoli, who finished sixth, will be promoted to Serie A. Of the three clubs promoted, only yo-yo club Empoli will play in Serie A. Perugia finished fourth, but were demoted to Serie C1 because of their financial problems, along with Salernitana. Messina were to be demoted from Serie A, but won an appeal against demotion for submitting late accounts. No wonder crowds are falling across Italian football.
Meanwhile, Italian referee Pierluigi Collina, regarded by many as the best in the world, has decided to resign from Italy's referee association, a move that would end his Serie A career. Collina recently signed a deal with car manufacturer Opel, the main sponsor of AC Milan. Soccer officials said that the arrangement caused a conflict of interest and ordered Collina to end the arrangement or quit. If Collina does go he would be barred from officiating in Italian league and cup matches. Collina acknowledged that he was wrong to accept the sponsorship, saying the mistake had ended a 28-year refereeing career. He had been granted an exemption to continue refereeing this season even though he had reached the league's age limit of 45 in February.
|
