Rumination #2: The Fate of Juventus

Yesterday Juventus announced that it would abandon the sports justice system and turn to an Italian administrative court and fight to overturn sanctions imposed by a football federation tribunal last month. The Financial Times (!) reports that a decision in favour of Juventus could have nullified the sanctions against the other clubs involved in the scandal, creating uncertainty as to which teams make up the A and B leagues, which in turn could have forced Federcalcio to suspend the football season opening. And here's the kicker -- because this action challenged Uefa and Fifa rules on dispute resolution, the appeal to a regular court could lead to Juventus being expelled from both organisations. WOW.

The appeals were rejected today by an administrative court, so it looks as though the original penalty stands. I don't understand this -- was this really worth the risk of being expelled from Fifa and Uefa? Or of delaying the start of the Italian football season? Am I missing something? Because to me, all this seems foolhardy, to say the least.

So matchfixing notwithstanding, how do we feel about Juve? Well, it's mixed.

On the one hand, it had/has some of my favorite players: (need I say it) Zidane, Vieira, Thuram, Ibrahimovic, Cannavaro, Buffon. On the other hand, players I hate: Zambrotta (even though he's with Barca now), Del Piero, etc. Plus I hate their uniforms -- they remind me of that get-out-of-jail-free guy from Monopoly.

On the one hand, the whole organization is clearly corrupt, as any examination of its history reveals. On the other hand, so is every other damn club in Italy, not least AC Milan, owned by Silvio Burlusconi, that icon of moral rectitude. So it's maybe not fair that they get punished so harshly when the others basically get a slap on the wrist.

So who knows? I'm inclined to write off all Italian football. I hate their style of play anyway -- no creativity, no flair. Catenaccio my ass.