The long wave of the Italian derby between Inter and Juventus on Saturday evening shows no sign of calming down. After the episode that led to Kalulu’s expulsion and the resulting refereeing controversies, the discussion degenerated from technical comments to a broader media attack on the entire Italian football system.
The writer and journalist intervened with very harsh words Roberto Saviano, who used their social channels to directly criticize the president of the Nerazzurri club, Giuseppe Marotta. In the post published on Instagram, Saviano wrote, with a photo of Marotta in the foreground: “As long as this man has a role in Italian football, everyone will have the feeling that the championships are distorted.”
The tone of the attack was not limited to the single match: Saviano extended the discussion, connecting the episode on the pitch to a broader vision of a “not entirely transparent” system, also citing the investigations into the infiltration of the ‘Ndrangheta into organized support, which – he underlined – “are not barroom fantasies but issues that ended up in the courtrooms”.
In his long message, the writer then explained that his is not «an attack on athletes and fans, who are the first victims of a system that is not entirely transparent», but a denunciation of structural dynamics which, in his opinion, prevent truly normal and credible football: “It’s not a question of colours”, he wrote again. «The problem is not football, football is the manifestation of the problem. In Italian football, normal conditions seem to be the exception. And as long as this is the case, every victory will be accompanied by a shadow.”
Saviano’s criticism inevitably sparked the debate further. On the one hand there are those who share the intention of denouncing problems of transparency and opaque relationships between curves and society; on the other there are those who consider his words an unfair generalization that starts from an refereeing episode, as there are many in all matches, to talk about much more serious problems concerning the relationship between clubs and organized fans.
The referee Federico La Penna during Inter-Juve on Saturday evening at San Siro
(HANDLE)
Marotta’s reply
Marotta’s response was clear. Commenting on the social media attack, the Nerazzurri manager stated: «Roberto Saviano’s statements? There is sorrow as a man, I don’t even know who he is, he doesn’t know me, I don’t really know what role I have. I don’t want to give it importance. He made statements that will be taken into consideration by the lawyers.”
On a sporting level, Marotta reiterated what he has already expressed on other occasions: the episode linked to Alessandro Bastoni, although “exaggerated and deplorable”, as he defined it, in his opinion falls within the errors that can happen, and the media reaction has exceeded the proportions of the event itself. The player, he underlined, was “the object of a media pillory that goes beyond what happened”.
Meanwhile, in the background, there remain the tensions that arose after the match between Inter and Juventus and the discussion on the referee’s error Federico La Penna.
