Only in Italy... Those of us who watch Serie A habitually know that phrase can be used as a positive or a negative, but it remains inevitably true.
Where else would two clubs trade official statements and bitchy tweets, going back and forth like bored teenagers? These aren’t even small sides with local rivalry; they are historically the clubs with the most Scudetto titles and are the best-known abroad.
The fact Juve and Milan are acting so childishly says an awful lot about the way football is discussed in Italy. There’s no difference between the bar talk and what goes on in television interviews. The cliché was always ‘everyone in Italy is a tactician.’ Now everyone in Italian football is an ultra, complete with the blinkered refusal to accept any other point of view.
Only in Italy would a side that lost 3-1 spend days protesting that the line drawn on a replay might’ve been slightly askew. Putting aside the whole issue of perspective, camera angles and basic geometry, just look at the footage in question. Even in the worst case scenario, Carlos Tevez was offside by at most 10 centimetres and that is being generous. Near the centre-circle. In a game that Milan lost 3-1. It’s hardly the most scandalous refereeing decision the world has ever seen, is it?
Rafa Benitez and Rudi Garcia have unfortunately settled into the Italian vibe all too well, learning some of our worst habits. Roma moaned non-stop about the game in Turin – again, all decisions that were borderline at best. The kind Benitez would describe with the phrase: ‘It can happen.’
In Italian ‘ci può stare’ can also translate as ‘I’ve seen them given’ or ‘it’s an acceptable margin of error.’ What’s so scandalous about that? If it wasn’t Juventus on the other side of those decisions, absolutely nothing. There’s more being said about this offside than the Palermo goal that clearly went over the line against Sampdoria.
Italian football is utterly addicted to outrage. No decision can go uncontested, no defeat fully deserved, no excuse left untried.
A lot of this is what makes Serie A so much fun. Nowhere else do you get this in-depth analysis of every move or so much tasty controversy to chew over between games. On the other hand, it can get tiring when we have to explain geometry while being called a cheat apologist.
Maybe it’s not just the parallel lines that we don’t have in perspective
(written by a Milanista)
