Bets fixed for a broken italian sport

Here we go again.

Just five years ago Italian sport was overwhelmed by the huge scandal of “Calciopoli” (not yet concluded) and today we are facing with another example of the awful national sport system.

Now we are still at the tip of the iceberg, but there are involved current and former footballers, club managers, betting shop clerks and many others.

Everything started when Marco Paoloni, a goalkeeper, decided to drug his teammates of Cremonese and to make crushing mistakes just to lose his fixed matches. Together with this gambling addicted there was a network of buyers and sellers, including important people like Giuseppe Signori (under house arrest), one of Italy’s leading strikers and top scorer in the ’90s.

We don’t know how far the investigation will arrive, but it is likely that italian calcio will be deeply upset. The italian Ministry of Interior summoned the president of the National Olympic Committee (which handle the entire sport system), SkyTV don’t want to pay anymore for the rights of fixed games, and the president of the Italian Football League said that: “all in all, what happens in football is not worse that our society…”.

So, the situation is confused, but we know for sure that in the end this system driven by money will protect itself again and again. In the teeth of millions supporters and athletes who truly loves sports and football.

Miracle bracelets, yes, but just for the vendor's counter

At long last, the Italian Antitrust just fined the Italian distributors of the "Power Balance" bracelets.

From an Australian idea they sold thousand of pieces, promising a wide range of benefic effects, from the balance to the strenght, from the resistance to the mental and physical well-being insomuch as to convince famous sportsmen and lots of people worldwide.

In Italy, these magic bracelets had been a big success, despite their expensive cost (from 20 to 50 Euros), just for a thin strip of neoprene and silicone.

But a research from the Italian Health Institute (ISS) declared  what who  study sports and movement sciences already knew, that there was  anything scientific at all behind these bracelets. As consequence, these companies are sanctioned by 350 thousand Euros for misleading advertising.

I can understand the hunger for an improvement of  ourselves, but nobody should search for better physical performances in something external  (except nutrition obviously), such as pharmaceutical substances or miraculous new equipment.

The periodic table of doping

The famous Periodic Table of Elements invented by the Russian chemist Mendeleev has just been changed by the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry).

They discovered that the atomic weights of ten chemical elements were not a constant and a fixed number, but a value out of an interval.

That's interesting not just for chemistry itself, but also in the world of sport. Why? Because it is important, in sports doping investigation, to distinguish human testosterone from the pharmaceutical one. The atomic weight of carbon into the latter is lower, so, the precision of the analysis could be crucial in the eternal fight between sport and these consequences of a champion-based model.

Goodbye Enzo Bearzot, honest reserved winner

Enzo Bearzot was not only the coach of Italian team during the 1982 World Cup in Spain, finished (as everybody knows) with an unexpected triumph of the Azzurri, but - more than this - he was a reserved and honest man, who preferred to stay away from the lights of success and to lead a simple life.

In Italy, of course, football is more than a religion and football actors are worshipped, rich and loved, but Enzo Bearzot decided to leave all this fame and attention just to his players.

He was called "Vecio" (old man in the dialect of his region; the Friuli Venezia-Giulia just like Fabio Capello) because of his appearance, even when he wasn't old at all.

Anyway he was an old-times gentleman that Italian sport, and football in particular, need today more than ever.

No more marathon, "Niggers" always winning!

Image: www.gianfalco.it

It first happened to the führer, during the 1936 Nazi Olympic Games in Berlin, to see the triumph of a “coloured”, James “Jesse” Cleveland Owens. Actually, neither Hitler had to complain that day, but something different is happening right now in Italy.
Next April 2011 – just like every year – will take place in Padova the traditional marathon of Sant’Antonio (patron of the city) and, during the meetings for the event’s organization, a Lega Nord party council member asked to stop public financing to the marathon saying that it’s a competition just for Africans and non-EC immigrants in underpants!
North-East Italy is a stronghold for this conservative, Sinn Féin-like party, so there is not to be completely astonished by similar politician’s statements. The real good news consist in all the negative feedback received by this indecent purpose from all around Italy (North-East included!).

South Africa 2010 world cup, another ball dropped

Photo by Fiverlocker - License

It could have been a brilliant opportunity for the whole continent, but after  few months from the final coronation of Spain and the switching off the floodlights, we all are now deeply disappointed.
A recent report published by the Oseo-Oeuvre, a Swiss nonprofit organization, says that South-African Government burnt more than 4 billion euros instead of the 241 million estimated.
Yes, it was also a beneficial effect to the local economy and employment, but just during the period of the building sites opened. Only the five biggest building companies have seen their turnover increasing.
At the end of that big circus, FIFA was the big winner with 2,4 billion euros (twice that Germany 2006), not bad at all for a not-for-profit organization and that's even more deplorable from a (Corporate) Social Responsibility point of view.
Different was the closing budget for South Africa, with a 2,1 billion euro loss and no new jobs for African people. The only inheritance left are the new  (and too expensive) plants, but will African people really use it?

Io sto con De Rossi

Può accadere anche questo, che mi trovi d'accordo con un calciatore che, quando (per una volta) decide di non ricorrere ai soliti luoghi comuni o alle frasi fatte tipiche del mondo sportivo, solleva un mare di polemiche.

Cosa ha detto? Semplicemente che ci sono tifosi "fuori di testa" così come non devono stare tanto bene neanche quei poliziotti che prendono a manganellate un ragazzino senza alcun motivo.

Per la verità io aggiungerei l'aggravante che le forze dell'ordine, a differenza degli ultrà,  sono pagate per proteggere e "fare ordine" appunto, ma quanto detto da De Rossi è già bastato per scatenare l'ira delle istituzioni e della Polizia.

Eppure il dato oggettivo c'è ed è noto a tutti; un giovane romano (Stefano Gugliotta), mentre si trovava vicino la propria abitazione, seduto sul suo motorino che aveva preso per andare a una festa di compleanno, si è visto avvicinare e percuotere da un poliziotto in assetto da guerra. Non ci vorrà molto per vedere un'intera squadra di poliziotti accorrere a dare manforte al collega nella difficile impresa di fronteggiare il temibile ragazzo sul motorino.

Il risultato; "solo" un sopracciglio e qualche dente rotto più il carcere per Stefano Gugliotta, reo di non aver fatto assolutamente nulla. Si sta parlando di questo ennesimo caso solo grazie a un video amatoriale che non lascia scampo, tuttavia più solidarietà che disappunto verso la Polizia e critiche solo al povero De Rossi per aver detto la verità.

La prossima volta, probabilmente, preferirà affidarsi a luoghi comuni e frasi fatte. Il nostro è davvero un Paese strano.