Blind Justice

The Appeal in Calciopoli decision is out - and it's a scandal. Anybody with an ounce of reason will notice that the ultimate aim of this decision is not the reform of football but the great revenge against La Grande Signora. The summary is simple - irritated at seeing the most successful team in Italian football win year in year out, Italian football's losers came up with the greatest scam of all time. They would take all that is ugly in Italian football and use Juventus as a scapegoat. the by now infamous "capro espiatorio".

If you're thinking that this is a biased fan's cry following yesterday's... well, think again. Here are a few sweet picks that arise after yesterday.

Franco Carraro - PARDONED (just 80 000 euro fine)
Passaportifazulli FC (internazionale) - Qualify for Champions League
Fideiussiorolexpassaportifazulli (rigetta fc) - Qualify for Champions League
AC Berluska (milan) - qualify for champions and kick off next season with -8

So first of all, the clean up is no clean up. It is like sending openly declared doped athletes to the Olympics. Worse than that is the fact that, apart from Juventus, no real punishment is meted out to teams that were found guilty of acts that bring the beautiful game to disrepute. This is not a defence of Juventus. It is a declaration of disappointment - disappointment in the system of Italian football that has shown (as mentioned at the beginning in J'Accuse) that the Lampedusian theory of leaving all things as they are while illuding oneself that they are changing is still the norm.

France Carraro has been pardoned. Let off the hook. Tomorrow he can take on another post in some sports committee as though Calciopoli never existed. Maurizio Crosetti described the Appeal decision as a "sentenza democristiana". He did not mean this as a compliment.

AC Milan was proven to have sent an idiot to negotiate its referees. Next year the Forza Italia team will play in the Champions League. No problem here of course. UEFA will only have to keep an eye on all Milan personnel... even those not listed on the team list of Officials. Who knows? It might be the bus driver doing the work this time.

After the World Cup everyone, myself included, laughed at the possibility of an amnesty. This was meant to be the chance for Italian football to show a new face. To remove people like Galliani from the head of the Lega because a team president can never be super partes. Do you know who is the pro tempore head of the Lega now? Moratti - president of Inter FC. The man who wants Inter to be awarded last year's Campionato. In case you forgot, no wrongdoing was proven in last year's Campionato. Moratti wants to win that one thanks to the legal twists by ths eunuch Appeals court.

There will be no new football in Italy. It is play as you were. Obviously Lucky Luciano and Giraudo will not be making their "telefonate spavaldi" but Rossella Sensi and her passport experts will still be there. Lotito and Della Valle's teams will still be trying to make sure that the new power that will develop will not prejudice their team - on and off the pitch. Moratti's league of foreigners with great grandparents of Italian origin will be vying for top spot. And Milan, who on the face of the facts proven in court were not very far from the shameful acts committed by Juve directors will be gracing the stadia of Europe with their inimitable style.

Juventus should shut up and get on with the game. We have had one Campionato stolen (that of last year) and we have the punishment we deserve. No amount of legal appeals should soften the minus seventeen in Serie B. What is sad is that this decision punishes Juve and only Juve. It is the decision that the plebeians in the street and the blind fanatics of the provincial losers love to see. Their blindness gets to the extreme where they do not mind playing in the mire that Italian football has become - so long as winning does not involve having to beat La Grande Signora.

The only positive effect of this decision comes from the region closest to home. With the reinstatement of Messina, for the first time in my living memory we have three Sicilian teams in Serie A. Forza Palermo! Forza Catania! Forza Messina! I cannot wish them much against the "incuci" (let's say it means corrupt agreements) of the Great Escapists of the latest but not the last scandal to have hit the Pensiola del Pallone. But anyway...we'll be back. I am sure... and my prediciton is that if we do start off with minus seventeen we'll be in the top 8 by Christmas and celebrating promotion come June next year.

Meanwhile - Zaccone has not proven to be much of a lawyer. So if Juve are still looking for one I openly declare my availability.

Do not miss: Il brutto epilogo del grande processo - Maurizio Crosetti