British media Bull Shit

[Italiamia]

[Italiamia]

Another 4 years for that fat alcoholic.

http://it.eurosport.yahoo.com/01062011/ ... ssimo.html

[ancient milanista]

I don't know how he has managed to keep his face straight when giving his speeches this last week.

[Italiamia]

How predictable. How depressing. Sepp Blatter continues to take the lead role in Fifa’s remake of Walking with Dinosaurs. His views on racism are so prehistoric, so odious that it begs the question: how does the Blattersaurus cling to power?

Any politician who had uttered similarly offensive comments would have been sacked or resigned. Yet Tyrannosaurus Sepp carries on, an embarrassment to a wonderful sport, an affront to common decency. Yet it would be lazy to dismiss Blatter’s comments to CNN and Al-Jazeera as the inane ramblings of an old man, an administrator long associated with having the gift of the gaffe. It’s more. It’s worse.

Blatter is an intelligent individual, a lawyer by training, a political animal by nature. He is different to the uneducated terrace-dwellers in Madrid or Bratislava who taunted England’s black players. Blatter is aware of the racism debate, knows he employs staff who strive to combat discrimination, and yet he makes such remarks. Blatter will have confirmed the fears of those black managers who fear the invisible racism within football, the glass ceiling preventing their rise.

Reading the transcripts of his interviews was singularly dispiriting. Almost every sentence contained an offensive sentiment.

First Blatter argued that there was no racism in football, a pronouncement discarding the hard work of all those within football’s governing bodies, including Fifa, seeking to excise the cancer of racism from the body of football. Racism is not as rife as before, certainly not like when bananas rained from the terraces, but it still exists. Blatter’s proved that.

With breathtaking arrogance, Fifa’s president goes on to claim that the ‘‘one who is affected’’ by a racist comment should say “this is a game” and shake hands with his abuser at full-time.

Unbelievable. Why should a black player tolerate that? They would be justified in shaking their abuser by the throat not the hand.

Denigrating an opponent on account of skin colour is despicable, and illegal, and no amount of “after you Claude, what’s for tea in the pavilion?” faux bonhomie can mask such racism. Such words would be shameless if coming from a humble kitman; spilling from the lips of the most powerful man in football is staggering. How can Blatter campaign for fair play and respect now?

So who can challenge Blatter? Rio Ferdinand has tweeted his anger. Good. The dressing-room must hit back, screaming that racism cannot be countenanced.

National associations must react, too. Conspiracy theorists will find suspicious coincidence in the Football Association announcing it had charged Luis Suárez with racially abusing Patrice Evra shortly after the Blatter story broke. Even if the timing was purely accidental, it still highlights the reality that FA takes racism seriously while Fifa, the home of Sepp the Dinosaur, doesn’t.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... enial.html

[red]

The English demand Blatter resigns on a weekly basis now.

I'm not saying they are wrong in this instance, but they say it so often that most people don't pay attention to them any more.

[RomaShield27]

Yeh, this latest episode got very little attention in the rest of Europe, Italy included. What he said was, naturally, completely idiotic and ridiculous, but if anything this hardline stance from the english media will make him only want to stay for another 20 years.

[forzaitalia]

[RomaShield27]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer ... t=sc_wr_a1

[RomaShield27]

Capello exit makes waves in Italy
/ February 9, 2012

The Italian press have been left stunned by Fabio Capello's resignation as England manager but are already focusing on his next destination.

• Capello resigns as England boss
• Wilshere 'gutted' over Fabio exit
• Rooney wants Redknapp
• Capello quotes denied

Capello was to leave the England job after five years in charge following this summer's European Championship, but the recent dispute with the FA over their decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy led to the Italian's surprise exit on Wednesday night.

"Capello shock resignation," ran Gazzetta dello Sport's headline, which added: "The Italian tactician has felt betrayed by the federation. He was the coach since 2007 and leaves England four months before Euro 2012."

Gazzetta says the veteran coach will have no problem finding a new job.

Capello, who has enjoyed successful spells at Juventus, Roma and AC Milan, has been linked with Inter Milan since last summer. Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala are also reportedly keen to acquire his services.

"Beware of (Inter Milan president Massimo) Moratti and Anzhi," Gazzetta warned. "There is also the possibility of (Juve president Andrea) Agnelli (offering the manager's role)."

National newspaper Il Messaggero and Rome-based Corriere dello Sport write that Capello's departure was due to the controversy about Terry, who awaits trial for allegedly racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

Il Messaggero's headline was: "Capello resigns from the England federation; Dispute with the federation regarding Terry racism."

The headline in Corriere dello Sport read: "Capello resigns. The relationship is interrupted due to the Terry case. Rumours link him to Inter and Anzhi."

Tuttosport, based in Turin, suggested Manchester United as a possible destination for the 65-year-old. "Capello shock, goodbye England," ran its headline, which added "Inter and Manchester (United) on him."

National newspaper La Repubblica welcomed Capello's availability. Its front page read: "Capello available on the market: Goodbye England."

[RomaShield27]

Culture of the players not lost in translation for Capello
The nationality of the manager is not the cause of England's long litany of failure, writes Dion Fanning

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/ ... 17062.html? / Sunday February 12 2012


The English have always understood irony. On Thursday, the FA announced that they would prefer an English successor to an Italian who had resigned when the FA took a strong stand against racism by removing the captaincy from the Englishman facing trial for a racially aggravated public order offence.

If they can't get an Englishman, they would like somebody British. If not British, then they would consider a foreigner but only if he has better English than Fabio Capello. "Next time we'd expect the manager to be a bit more fluent," the FA chairman David Bernstein said.

Harry Redknapp, who was cleared of charges of tax evasion on Wednesday and must clearly believe in the principle of innocent until proven guilty, is expected to be appointed manager for the European Championships. He will have to decide on a successor to John Terry, who was dismissed as England captain a week ago once his trial was put back until after the championships. The FA felt "there is something particular about the England football captain, it is different to how they're perceived on the continent" which prevented Terry retaining that position and the FA observing the principle of innocent until proven guilty.

For England's friendly against Holland at the end of the month, Stuart Pearce, who once racially abused Paul Ince on a football pitch and whose brother is a member of the BNP, will lead an England dressing room which reportedly couldn't face being captained by Terry while he faces racism allegations.

Yes, they still get irony.

The rest they don't seem to understand. "It is a magnificent job," Bernstein said on Friday, before muttering, "it's had its problems in the past and maybe in the future."

This was one way of putting it. Stuart Pearce, known as 'Psycho', is temporarily in charge of the madhouse. Then they will move for Redknapp. There were hundreds of people at Wembley last Thursday for the FA's press conference but there were times when they were addressing an audience of one. Not Redknapp, but his chairman and fierce negotiator Daniel Levy. The FA tried to pretend there was more than one contender. They needed to, otherwise there would be "a difficult negotiation position".

Damningly, for a country which has expressed its weariness about foreign managers in recent days, there is only one English candidate who seems capable.

"The national mood," Bernstein said on Thursday, "would like an English manager and it would be nice to reflect the national mood."

The national mood wanted Capello out and Capello reacted to the FA's challenge to the core principle of football management: the manager is solely responsible for matters concerning the team.

Those who said Capello had never been too concerned about the captaincy before missed the point. It was for him as manager to evaluate its importance, not David Bernstein, a man who clearly thinks he knows a bit about the game having once queried Manchester City's decision to sign Robbie Fowler while chairman of the club.

Behind the half-baked principles which triggered the latest crisis (Terry remains in the squad, his removal as captain an act of symbolism which has backfired) is a familiar English problem.

Somehow, the players are off the hook. Wayne Rooney, who was perhaps not just the worst English player but among the worst players at the 2010 World Cup, felt free to give his opinion on Capello's successor. He wanted Harry Redknapp. They all want Harry Redknapp.

Rio Ferdinand called for an English manager and asked that things would no longer be "lost in translation". Ferdinand, an anti-racism crusader, now fell back on lazy xenophobia for which there is more than zero tolerance.

They are ready to embrace Redknapp and be embraced by him. Their failure at the last tournament was put down to Capello's brutal methods and boredom. This summer, they will live the life of a boulevardier and Redknapp will put his arm around them.

On the day that the future England manager was cleared of tax evasion and the current one decided to quit because he felt the FA had interfered with the manager's right to make decisions on team matters, people were announcing on Twitter that the feelgood factor was back. It is a shame the football has to come along to spoil the fun.

Capello was a curious manager of England. He didn't believe in the cult of the personality but he believed in the cult of the manager. The manager had authority and the players listened. Those who had once demanded that humiliations be handed out to England's solipsistic players now wondered why he had to be so cruel.

He appeared to be utterly defeated by his players as well. He was accused last week of an inability to understand the psychology of the English player. In fact, he understood it all too well.

Having failed to discern any sign of collective intelligence in the England team, he decided to keep it very simple. It would be 4-4-2 and the big number nine (although in Emile Heskey's case, he could be described as the false big number nine) up front. Capello felt they could grasp nothing more than that and saw no point in trying to pretend otherwise.

They could tolerate Sven, who at least spent most of his time trying to sleep with their women and therefore could be said to see some merit in the country, more than Fabio, who could see none.

Most of the football problems are well known. Trevor Brooking told a story of an English underage side beating Spain recently and commented that if the English players had been wearing Spanish or German shirts, "you wouldn't have known we were English because we kept the ball so well".

The question will always be if these faults are simply because the players haven't been coached properly (or encouraged to think for themselves) or if it is a symptom of a greater cultural failing.

Why are there so few good English managers as well as intelligent English players? It must be more than a question of coaching.

But now they are talking about structures again. When the FA talk about planning for the future, they resemble a child taking a vow of silence. They are always starting ". . . now". This time, it will be different. They are following the Spanish model (although they haven't finished copying the French model yet) but whether they have the culture that allows the development of players with the intelligence of Xavi and Iniesta is questionable.

For the time being, they will fall back on old values. Stuart Pearce is the faithful retainer, Old Scrotum from Sir Henry at Rawlinson End. Pearce would be the wrong man at any time but he is certainly the wrong man at the wrong time. If he can survive the latest race storm, then Pearce will give a demonstration of futile passion when England play Holland at the end of the month and then they will go calling for Harry.

Like Sir Henry Rawlinson, the England job has never met a man it didn't mutilate.

Harry may make the players happy and the happiness might lead to glorious expression on the field.

There are some who talk about his fear of confrontation and in a dressing room of egos, he may need to banish that fear. It is also possible to envisage a squad that keeps changing as Harry's desire for new faces will no longer be tempered by a chairman failing to release funds. Instead he can summon anyone who takes his fancy.

Right now it is all good news. Wednesday was portrayed as Harry's greatest day. "He could have gone to prison in the morning and now he's almost gone to heaven," Martin Keown said when the news came through that Capello had quit.

It is a strange view of paradise. The endless waiting for agonising defeat, the pointless hours spent trying to educate recidivist players and the inevitable despair. If that is heaven then heaven can wait.

Perhaps a country with so little success on the field needs these purges. They offer moments of triumph at least as they persuade the man they want to take the job and celebrate another successful bout of head-hunting.

There is a giddiness as they prepare for Redknapp. Bernstein talked of the "phenomenon with new managers, a Martin O'Neill at Sunderland type of thing". With England, there are counterbalancing and more powerful phenomena.

Redknapp might be better off skipping the Euros and allowing the next cycle of expectation and despair to play out without him. If he takes the job before June, he will be asked, "Can we win it?" when all the evidence suggests that it is a very stupid question.

The press conference on Thursday lacked any of the frenzy normally associated with these occasions. There was no jeopardy as everybody knows the identity of the new manager, and no rage as everybody is happy about it.

The FA's job is to manage expectations. They can do this by telling the truth but few are interested in the truth. The FA's Adrian Bevington pointed out that England had won only four matches in European Championship finals outside England.

"We've got to stop bouncing in from one tournament to another and apologising for not getting past the quarter-finals. We've been past the quarter-finals three times in our history. What gives us the right to say were going there with the expectation to win tournaments?"

Perversely, failure seems only to have increased expectation. The England manager is paid more than any other international manager to surpass those expectations. When he doesn't, he is always the one to blame.

Capello's point of view on the removal of the captaincy from Terry was dismissed last week when it was, in fact, the starting point for any principled manager.

Giovanni Trapattoni understood. "The team is the manager's responsibility -- the political is the Football Association," he said on Friday. "Fabio understood the FA interfered in this job. And he said 'excuse me, I don't lose my credibility'."

One writer complained that Capello's £6m a year was "not enough to interest him greatly in the culture of the country whose national game he was hired to revive".

His lack of interest in the culture should have chimed with those at all levels of the English game. Capello was not hired to attend the Lucien Freud exhibition. He was hired because the unexamined lives of generations of English football men had produced a culture incapable of thinking for itself. Capello discovered that as footballers they could barely think at all.

The problem is not the nationality of the manager, the problem is the culture of the players.

[RomaShield27]

Nice time to resurrect this old thread, with England v Italy been drawn together in the World Cup, lots of quality ammunition once again.

Predicted Italy 11 for WC:



Pic via: https://twitter.com/DavidLSwan/status/4 ... 1010821120

No De Rossi.

Terry Venables: “They knocked us out of Euro ’12 but we beat them a few weeks later in a friendly”. Oh, well then.

[p_maldini_3]

therefore they will win the world cup.

once i see lampard and gerrard in the starting XI, my mind will be at ease.

[RomaShield27]

Indeed. I'll wager they won't even qualify from the group.

This is old, but an entertaining read:

The English Job
http://football-italia.net/20264/english-job / Friday June 22 2012

When Italy were paired with England in Euro 2012, Susy Campanale’s heart sank, but it had precious little to do with the football.

I am, like many of our regular readers on this website, an Italian who grew up in England. I have always identified myself as Italian, have an Italian passport, watch television from the peninsula with the aid of a satellite dish and naturally cheer on the Azzurri in any sport or Eurovision Song Contest. I am bi-lingual and bi-cultural, for this gives us the unique perspective of seeing both nations simultaneously as insiders and outsiders. This is why the idea of an Italy-England quarter-final is deeply frightening. We know what’s coming.

We’ve seen it so many times before and now it’s us in the firing line. Within minutes of the ludicrously lucky win over Ukraine, friends and co-workers were already texting Anglo-Italians with jokes about pasta, boring defensive football, match-fixing, pizza puns and switching sides in World War II. The media are even worse and it is not just reserved to the tabloids now. ITV presented the game with France by name-checking Waterloo and the Battle of Agincourt – you know, relevant, up to date references. You may say that all nations do this – I am here to tell you they do not. Italian media mention other football matches, but certainly not the Roman invasion of Britain or the fact we gave you aqueducts. Because that would be daft.

It’s really no better when the English get down to discussing Italian football. I wonder if we can place a bet on how long it will take articles or television intros to mention the dreaded c-word, even though catenaccio hasn’t been used since the 1960s. Of course the pundits will confidently state that Italy will shut up shop, park the bus, focus on the counter-attack and play negatively. We’ll probably see all that on Sunday, but mainly from Roy Hodgson’s team. When the Azzurri do it, that’s ‘negative,’ but for England it’s ‘determined, solid and gritty’. Also, time-wasting and diving is ‘cheating’ for Italians, but ‘clever play’ by the English.

These are people who are paid to watch football for a living. You’d think when going on to the television, radio or newspapers they would invest a little time in some research. Instead, I heard ex-Inter player Paul Ince tell radio listeners “Andrea Pirlo is good for his age.” He turned 33 last month! When did that become old? Oh, I forgot, Italy have an ‘ageing squad’ at all times, regardless of facts and statistics. It is just one of the many clichés we have to put up with when watching Italian football discussed in Britain.

Then there is the other issue that surely not only the Italians, but all non-English people in England will have spotted. It’s fortunate England rarely win anything, because they are really not good at handling success. Already the smugometer is off the charts, squeezing past Sweden and Ukraine with a large dose of luck and a big slice of cynicism for some reason has made them favourites for the tournament.

Pundits have been talking about a semi-final with Germany since Tuesday night, as if beating Italy were a foregone conclusion. I realise this isn’t the strongest Azzurri side in history, but I’ve got a newsflash for you – neither is it the best England team. The performances in the group phase showed little to be frightened of other than the pace of Theo Walcott and Hodgson’s remarkable luck. I even read that if the tie goes to penalties, England are certain to win because they have “such a strong goalkeeper in Joe Hart.” No mention whatsoever of Gigi Buffon, then? Good to know he merits so little recognition.

Most of all, my heart sank because if England do get the win, then we will literally never hear the end of it. And I am not misusing the term literally. Still banging on about 1966 at every available opportunity, the English react to success much the same way they do to the appearance of sunshine – strip to comedy shorts, get very drunk, go extremely red and lose all sense of proportion or decency. You’ve heard of sore losers? Those are the Italians with a conspiracy theory ready for every occasion. The English, however, are sore winners, rubbing people’s faces in their every tiny victory.

This blog may seem bitter to some of you, and I agree it probably is, but the other Italians in England will know exactly what I mean. Whatever happens, it’s going to be a dark few days or even years, so let’s remember we have each other. Forza ragazzi.

[DCGweez]

All true still fair play to the EPL for wearing black arm bands for the death of Paul Walker.