The beautiful game
Jan. 10, 2003
Letters from Europe is a regular feature from Don Murray, Senior European Correspondent for CBC-TV News
It is the beautiful game played by the blue team – la squaddra azzurra. It is soccer in Italy, the subject of national frenzy every Sunday. This is when Italians gather to celebrate the rite of the calcio – the Italian league, the soccer equivalent of the NHL.
But the beautiful game is now looking distinctly tatty. It is dogged by crisis and scandal. This being Italy, these lurid episodes are often baptized with theatrical titles. The latest is the so-called “widows of the calcio” chapter. It broke into the public domain at the beginning of the year.
Since 1998 an Italian prosecutor, Raffaele Guariniello, has been investigating the premature deaths of former Italian professional soccer players over the past four decades. The figures, he says, are alarming. About 400 ex-players died in this period.
The prosecutor describes 70 of those deaths as suspect. There was an abnormally high rate of cancers and of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, far higher than in the general population. The prosecutor says he is treating these cases as ‘involuntary homicide’ – manslaughter.
But who is the culprit?
The trail begins in 1998, in July. In that month Zdenek Zeman gave an interview to an Italian magazine. Despite his Czech name and birth, he had lived and worked in Italy since 1968. In 1998 he was the manager of AS Roma, one of the big clubs in the calcio. He was known for his tactical genius and for his straight talk.
In the interview his talk was very straight. “Italian soccer has to move out of the drugstore,” he said. He then went on to point a finger directly at two of Italy’s star players, Gianluca Vialli and Alessandro Del Piero. Both men played for another major club, Juventus, owned by the powerful Agnelli family. “I was surprised by the thighs of Vialli and the sudden bulking up of Del Piero. I thought that such changes only occurred after years of weight work.”
Zeman knew that he was dealing with a taboo subject – drugs in soccer. He was immediately attacked by Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat and Juventus and one of the most powerful men in Italy. Agnelli accused him of colossal ingratitude. Juventus had saved Zeman’s uncle from communism by bringing him to Italy to play for the team. It was Zeman’s uncle who got Zeman out of Czechoslovakia.
Zeman batted the charge right back. His uncle had left his country before the communists took power. Agnelli was talking from ignorance.
Zeman’s comments forced the authorities to investigate. A police search uncovered 280 types of drugs in a room in a stadium where Juventus trained. Prosecutor Guariniello began his judicial inquiry. He got little help from the soccer authorities.
His preliminary conclusion this January he framed in the form of a question: “Why are so many soccer players dying at such a young age – the average is 39 – from Lou Gehrig’s disease? Is it because they were required to play with painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs and to take hits when they should have been rested? We’ve got to get to the bottom of this because this disease is beginning to look like an occupational illness for professional soccer players.”
Despite the scandal and investigations the calcio carried on. It was, after all, a key national institution. The fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, once lauded Italian soccer as a symbol of the country’s glory and power. It was part of Italy’s “patriotic tradition.” It had an “educational and social function.” It was a key component in military preparation. But that was in the days when the squaddra azzurra was winning World Cups.
It’s been some time since Italy won its last World Cup. For that matter, it’s been seven years since an Italian team from the calcio has won a European club competition. What the calcio has won are lurid headlines for the wrong sort of behaviour.
Here’s one: “Violent, Racist, Corrupt – Welcome to Italian Football.”
Violence? Italy has supplanted England as the home of battles in the stands and in the streets before, during and after matches. There have been ambushes, stabbings and beatings. There have been attacks on players by their own supporters, assaults on players’ relatives and a firebomb attack on a team bus.
Racism? Black players are verbally abused on a regular basis. A visiting English team complained officially to UEFA, the European governing council of football, when two of its players were subjected to such abuse.
Corruption? Well, what about the team from Florence, Fiorentina, unable to pay its bills after one of its owners was accused of massive embezzlement. The team was relegated to an also-ran division. Or the foreign players with false Italian passports so their clubs could bypass the quota system on foreigners. In an elegant solution, the Italian courts suddenly struck down the quota system, so the illegal ‘Italians’ could carry on playing. The criminal passport scam was simply dismissed as the price of doing business in the calcio.
Here’s another headline: “Calcio in a fix over drug use.” Despite the investigations and the criminal inquiries, drug use apparently continues unabated. At least eight players have tested positive in the last two years for using the steroid nandroline. More than 40 others were reported to have shown traces of the drug but not to the level judged unacceptable.
To add to the mess, the calcio is running short of money, television money. The league had to postpone the opening of this season by two weeks when Italian television networks refused to pay the huge sum it was demanding to broadcast the games. Without those sums many teams wouldn’t have the money to pay their millionaire players.
But the calcio has friends in high places, indeed in the highest place. The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, owns one of the big teams. A deal was worked out. The calcio is back in business.
And what of the man who blew the whistle? On the day after Christmas 2002, Zdenek Zeman lost his last job in Italian football. He’d been coaching a lowly club in the second division. He was abruptly fired.
His decline had started right after his interview. In the spring of 1999 he was fired from his first division team, despite its finishing fifth. He had to go abroad, to Turkey, to find work. His dismissal last December seems final. No other club is ready to touch him.
It’s cold comfort to Zeman that, after his comments, two senior officials of the Juventus club were charged with illegally administering banned substances to their players.
Zeman himself committed another violation, more readily associated with another famous Italian organization. He broke the code of omerta, the code of silence that covered the sins of the calcio.
For that he has been punished
Jan. 10, 2003
Letters from Europe is a regular feature from Don Murray, Senior European Correspondent for CBC-TV News
It is the beautiful game played by the blue team – la squaddra azzurra. It is soccer in Italy, the subject of national frenzy every Sunday. This is when Italians gather to celebrate the rite of the calcio – the Italian league, the soccer equivalent of the NHL.
But the beautiful game is now looking distinctly tatty. It is dogged by crisis and scandal. This being Italy, these lurid episodes are often baptized with theatrical titles. The latest is the so-called “widows of the calcio” chapter. It broke into the public domain at the beginning of the year.
Since 1998 an Italian prosecutor, Raffaele Guariniello, has been investigating the premature deaths of former Italian professional soccer players over the past four decades. The figures, he says, are alarming. About 400 ex-players died in this period.
The prosecutor describes 70 of those deaths as suspect. There was an abnormally high rate of cancers and of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, far higher than in the general population. The prosecutor says he is treating these cases as ‘involuntary homicide’ – manslaughter.
But who is the culprit?
The trail begins in 1998, in July. In that month Zdenek Zeman gave an interview to an Italian magazine. Despite his Czech name and birth, he had lived and worked in Italy since 1968. In 1998 he was the manager of AS Roma, one of the big clubs in the calcio. He was known for his tactical genius and for his straight talk.
In the interview his talk was very straight. “Italian soccer has to move out of the drugstore,” he said. He then went on to point a finger directly at two of Italy’s star players, Gianluca Vialli and Alessandro Del Piero. Both men played for another major club, Juventus, owned by the powerful Agnelli family. “I was surprised by the thighs of Vialli and the sudden bulking up of Del Piero. I thought that such changes only occurred after years of weight work.”
Zeman knew that he was dealing with a taboo subject – drugs in soccer. He was immediately attacked by Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat and Juventus and one of the most powerful men in Italy. Agnelli accused him of colossal ingratitude. Juventus had saved Zeman’s uncle from communism by bringing him to Italy to play for the team. It was Zeman’s uncle who got Zeman out of Czechoslovakia.
Zeman batted the charge right back. His uncle had left his country before the communists took power. Agnelli was talking from ignorance.
Zeman’s comments forced the authorities to investigate. A police search uncovered 280 types of drugs in a room in a stadium where Juventus trained. Prosecutor Guariniello began his judicial inquiry. He got little help from the soccer authorities.
His preliminary conclusion this January he framed in the form of a question: “Why are so many soccer players dying at such a young age – the average is 39 – from Lou Gehrig’s disease? Is it because they were required to play with painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs and to take hits when they should have been rested? We’ve got to get to the bottom of this because this disease is beginning to look like an occupational illness for professional soccer players.”
Despite the scandal and investigations the calcio carried on. It was, after all, a key national institution. The fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, once lauded Italian soccer as a symbol of the country’s glory and power. It was part of Italy’s “patriotic tradition.” It had an “educational and social function.” It was a key component in military preparation. But that was in the days when the squaddra azzurra was winning World Cups.
It’s been some time since Italy won its last World Cup. For that matter, it’s been seven years since an Italian team from the calcio has won a European club competition. What the calcio has won are lurid headlines for the wrong sort of behaviour.
Here’s one: “Violent, Racist, Corrupt – Welcome to Italian Football.”
Violence? Italy has supplanted England as the home of battles in the stands and in the streets before, during and after matches. There have been ambushes, stabbings and beatings. There have been attacks on players by their own supporters, assaults on players’ relatives and a firebomb attack on a team bus.
Racism? Black players are verbally abused on a regular basis. A visiting English team complained officially to UEFA, the European governing council of football, when two of its players were subjected to such abuse.
Corruption? Well, what about the team from Florence, Fiorentina, unable to pay its bills after one of its owners was accused of massive embezzlement. The team was relegated to an also-ran division. Or the foreign players with false Italian passports so their clubs could bypass the quota system on foreigners. In an elegant solution, the Italian courts suddenly struck down the quota system, so the illegal ‘Italians’ could carry on playing. The criminal passport scam was simply dismissed as the price of doing business in the calcio.
Here’s another headline: “Calcio in a fix over drug use.” Despite the investigations and the criminal inquiries, drug use apparently continues unabated. At least eight players have tested positive in the last two years for using the steroid nandroline. More than 40 others were reported to have shown traces of the drug but not to the level judged unacceptable.
To add to the mess, the calcio is running short of money, television money. The league had to postpone the opening of this season by two weeks when Italian television networks refused to pay the huge sum it was demanding to broadcast the games. Without those sums many teams wouldn’t have the money to pay their millionaire players.
But the calcio has friends in high places, indeed in the highest place. The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, owns one of the big teams. A deal was worked out. The calcio is back in business.
And what of the man who blew the whistle? On the day after Christmas 2002, Zdenek Zeman lost his last job in Italian football. He’d been coaching a lowly club in the second division. He was abruptly fired.
His decline had started right after his interview. In the spring of 1999 he was fired from his first division team, despite its finishing fifth. He had to go abroad, to Turkey, to find work. His dismissal last December seems final. No other club is ready to touch him.
It’s cold comfort to Zeman that, after his comments, two senior officials of the Juventus club were charged with illegally administering banned substances to their players.
Zeman himself committed another violation, more readily associated with another famous Italian organization. He broke the code of omerta, the code of silence that covered the sins of the calcio.
For that he has been punished