Some Things, Eh...?
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Some things, eh...? Juventus coach Antonio Conte says English official Mark Clattenburg was not good enough to referee their Europa League semi-final against Benfica. Here we go again. This was yesterday, May 1st. "I didn't appreciate either the attitude of our opponents or the referee," said Conte. "Uefa should show us more respect by sending a referee of the required standard." You’ve got to admire the balls of the man, coming from a club which has been punished in the last few years for bribing referees. Basically, he’s saying we couldn’t pay the ref off and he dared to refuse to just let us waltz through to the final. We don’t have that in Italy, what gives? He’s obviously bemused by this ‘lack of respect’ in UEFA sending an incorruptible ref and is under the assumption that the Old Lady’s failure is everyone else’s fault. Of course it is. Despite an almost unprecedented EIGHT minutes of added time, Juventus failed to break down Benfica’s nine men in the half an hour available with the numerical advantage. So, aeons of added time, red cards, denial of opposition penalties… How disrespectful of Clattenburg not to just give them a goal. Disgraceful. Here’s how he should have bent over for the Old Lady… Remember who’s really in charge… (October 2012) Picture 2 Picture 1 onside. offside. Unless you ‘own’ the officials La Repubblica newspaper in Italy reported on this refereeing decision apparently overturned after ‘a word’ from the away team bench, altering the entire result of the game... The clocks in Italy, along with those across the rest of Europe, went back on Sunday morning. Sadly they did not wind back to the glory days. Instead, we were returned only to a time when "[Silvio] Berlusconi insults judges and referees help out Juve". Berlusconi reacted furiously to his conviction for tax fraud two years ago describing the verdict, as "political" and "intolerable". But his words were positively restrained compared to the ones used by the Catania president, Antonio Pulvirenti, after his team had a perfectly good goal chalked off in their 1-0 home defeat to the Bianconeri. "Today we witnessed the death of football," said Pulvirenti. It was his contention that the goal had not been ruled out by the referee, but instead "was disallowed by the Juventus bench". Certainly the officials' decision-making process in the 26th minute at the Stadio Angelo Massimino had left a lot to be desired. Gonzalo Bergessio was in a clear onside position when Nicolás Spolli met Giovanni Marchese's cross from the left with a downward header towards the right-hand corner of Gigi Buffon's goal. The ball struck the foot of the post and rebounded back out into the six-yard box, where Bergessio prodded it home (picture 1). Initially, the referee Andrea Gervasoni signalled that the goal had been awarded. The linesman Luca Maggiani, whose flag had stayed down, also began to walk back towards the centre-circle. Then he stopped and turned around, calling Gervasoni over for a conference. It quickly became apparent that the pair were also discussing the situation with the official behind the goal, Nicola Rizzoli, via their headsets. Approximately 45 seconds later, the call was changed – with Bergessio ruled to have been offside. At first, confusion reigned – the stadium continuing to celebrate for some seconds after the decision was overturned – but that soon gave way to rage. It had not escaped the attention that, en route to the halfway line, Maggiani was confronted by Simone Pepe and other members of the Juventus bench, who had strayed to the edge of their technical area to protest over the goal. Pulvirenti was in no doubt as to what he had seen. "The linesman had given the goal, but after the complaints from the bench the referee and linesman changed their decision and disallowed it," he said. "It is a scandal, it is embarrassing … Who decided [that the goal should not stand], Pepe or [Emanuele] Giaccherini? It is becoming hard to continue." Maggiani, the ref, wanted to check with Rizzoli whether there was a touch inside the area by any Catania player after Spolli. Rizzoli, at the bye-line, was clearly in no position to judge the offside, but could confirm that Francesco Lodi had got his boot to the ball as it flew through the area. For Maggiani this was decisive. When Spolli won his header Bergessio was onside, but surely by the time the ball grazed Lodi's boot the striker must have strayed off? The truth was that he hadn't – the player still clearly onside when the ball passed Lodi – but now the linesman's memory was playing tricks on him. It was a decision only compounded in the second half, when the same official failed to spot that Nicklas Bendtner was offside in the build-up to Juventus's goal, the striker's front foot beyond the defensive line (picture 2) when he was played through by Mirko Vucinic. Bendtner failed to convert the opportunity himself – his tame first-time effort blocked by Mariano Andujar – but Arturo Vidal rolled home the rebound. On its own it was an incident that might easily have been forgiven – even Pulvirenti saying he did not want to protest about that goal afterwards. But taken in the greater context of a match containing Catania's disallowed goal and eventually also a red card for Marchese (even if his two bookings were, in truth, merited), it all played into the old narrative of officials being subject to sudditanza psicologica – a "psychological slavery" – that causes them to inherently favour the big teams. Well, Juventus, that is. And before that… (February 2012) 1 2 "I won't speak about refereeing decisions any more unless I have [Beppe] Marotta's permission," quipped Milan manager Massimo Allegri afterwards – referencing a comment by the Juventus general manager about not commenting on other people's affairs – 4 but then he did anyway. "Unfortunately 3 that incident falsified the match. Maybe they made a mistake when drawing up the pitch. Perhaps the goalline was a bit too thick." The Milan supporters behind the press box in the Tribuna Rossa craned their necks, trying to catch a replay on the journalists' TV screens. Others reached for their phones to demand answers from friends sat watching at home. But most of the 50,000 in attendance at San Siro didn't bother. They needed no confirmation of what they had already seen: Sulley Muntari's header entering the Juventus goal before being pushed back out by Gigi Buffon. And yet no goal had been awarded. At first it seemed that one had, the referee Paolo Tagliavento signalling for the centre circle as Milan's players celebrated and more than one Juventus defender stood staring at the ground. But the linesman, Roberto Romagnoli, had not seen the ball cross the line. "It didn't go in," he is reported to have told Tagliavento via the referee's earpiece as Juventus launched an opportunistic counter. "I'm certain." What he had seen to make him so sure only he can know. Within moments TV screengrabs had begun to appear on Twitter and internet messageboards – showing not only that the ball had been several feet over the line but also that Romagnoli was perfectly positioned to make the call. Bewilderment gave way to rage. The cheers that had caught in Milan supporters' throats were transformed into a chant directed at their opponents: "Sapete solo rubare" – "you only know how to steal". Nor was it just supporters losing their heads. In the directors' seats the Milan vice-president, Adriano Galliani, turned on the referees' association president, Marcello Nicchi – telling him he ought to be ashamed – before exchanging similarly furious words with the Juventus president, Andrea Agnelli. He then stormed down to the tunnel. There Galliani would engage in a further set-to with Antonio Conte at half-time, accusing the opposition manager of having influenced the officials with his complaints over refereeing decisions in recent matches. "Look what happens when you spend the whole week crying," Galliani is reported to have said. Conte's apparent reply was scathing: "What a pulpit, you lot are the mafia of football." This, from the coach who was last summer banned for ten months for failing to report match-fixing when head of Siena. This ban was reduced by the National Court of Arbitration for Sport to four months, whereupon Conte resumed cheating his place on the bench. Little wonder that more than one newspaper should use the term "open warfare" to describe the situation between the two clubs in the aftermath of the game. For many years Milan and Juventus had enjoyed a highly convivial relationship– frequently battling side-by-side on matters of league governance. When Buffon was injured in a pre-season friendly against Milan in the summer of 2005, the Rossoneri immediately delivered their rivals Christian Abbiati on a free loan. Lately, though, that largely one-way relationship has been degenerating. "I was watching the ball, not the line," Buffon told La Repubblica. "I didn't realise it had gone over the line, and even ...and isn’t it nice to see Juve now accepting if I did I wouldn't have lent a hand to the referee.” Juve won the defeat so gracefully (rare home defeat to Samp in January 2013). Seems like those months in Inter, of course, never have title by four points with some other ‘questionable’ refereeing Serie B really did serve up a portion of Humble anything to do with decisions.