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Reaction to the Dondarini-Juventus affair
Posted - 25th February 2008
It was the main talking point on Sunday evening, on all the talk shows (including the few that aren't football related). Everyone has an opinion on Paolo Dondarini's inexplicable decision to deny Juventus a number of clear-cut penalties during the game with Reggina on Saturday night.
On popular football discussion show Contro Campo the thesis evolved that Dondarini, implicated in Calciopoli, was psychologically not prepared to referee a match with Juventus, where his decisions would obviously come under scrutiny. Actor and football fan Diego Abatantuono (star of the Oscar winning film Mediterraneo) lamented 'this will never finish', refering to the after-effects of Calciopoli. A theory emphasised by Juventus club chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, who, in a rare moment of anger, sent an open letter to the football federation and the Refereeing Association suggesting that Juventus were being punished still for their role in the scandal which traumatised Italian football so recently.
This season has already seen repeated allegations of favouritism with regard to championship leaders Inter Milan. Roberto Mancini, forced to comment on the Dondarini case, replied that he thought Juventus were right to protest if they thought they had been hard-done-by, before adding opportunistically "referees make mistakes, like in Liverpool" (refering to the sending off of Materrazzi during the recent Champions League match between Inter and Liverpool, which helped cost Inter the match).
AS Roma's coach, Luciano Spalletti, whose team are vying with Juventus for second place (they've spent most of the season just marginally ahead of Claudio Ranieri's team), and who has verbally sparred throughout the season with Inter's Mancini, refused to be drawn into the debate. While admitting that there were dubious decisions involved, he went on to say of the open-letter by Juventus, "I don't agree about the inadequacies of Italian referees". A wise decision, perhaps, given that Roma head into a crucial match this wednesday with Inter, which may decide the championship. Obviously all eyes will be on the refereeing for the game.
AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani was one of the few to suggest measures that might improve the situation, chief amongst them being the introduction of non-Italian officials amongst the referees for Serie A. Given AC Milan's proven ability to compete in international competition, his words hold a certain weight.
Also with suggestions - though it remains to be seen how practical they may be - was ex Juventus and Italian international Marco Tardelli, who is currently a regular pundit for Italian television, and right-hand-man to newly appointed Irish coach Giovanni Trappatoni. Tardelli suggests that 'the only solution' to the crisis in Italian refereeing is for ex-players to become the whistle-blowers on the pitch. "With all respect, what does someone off the bench know about simulation etc. There are ex-players that close their careers at 25-30. They would have 10-15 years ahead of them in a refereeing career".
Meanwhile it seems likely that Paolo Dondarini will receive a two-month suspension from the Refereeing assocation when the obvious mistakes made are reviewed by their disciplinary committee, effectively ruling him out from further refereeing in Serie A this season.
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Readers' Comments
I something still remains.If Moggi employ the referee by phone but now the teams in Serie A, like Inter, employ the referees by a middle or third person.The only solution is to use foreign referees and the signing out of Colina as the federation chief because he had very close relations with Galianai in previous seasons!
Posted by JAVID (ARE)