THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi I

[RomaShield27]

AS ROMA | 18-03-2008 - ore 15:23

Al termine della sessione di allenamento di oggi, Luciano Spalletti, il tecnico della Roma, ha diramato la lista dei ventitrè calciatori convocati per il Derby di domani sera.

ANTUNES Gabriel
AQUILANI Alberto
BERTAGNOLI J.Sergio
BRIGHI Matteo
CASSETTI Marco
CICINHO
CURCI Gianluca
DE ROSSI Daniele
DONI
ESPOSITO Mauro
FERRARI Matteo
GIULY Ludovic
JUAN
MANCINI Alessandro
MEXES Philippe
PANUCCI Christian
PERROTTA Simone
PIZARRO David
TADDEI Rodrigo
TONETTO Max
TOTTI Francesco
VUCINIC Mirko
ZOTTI Carlo

[oily]

[oily]

[oily]

[Jamoldo]

[pocari_fenrir]

[stefano]

[stefano]

[pocari_fenrir]

[pocari_fenrir]

[RomaShield27]

[Jamoldo]

What you have in England, Shield, is a cash cow and English is the global language. Additionally you do have a rough and fast paced game with packed stadiums in many places which makes for some mighty attractive viewing for the average fan. That's why you have foreigners coming in droves. I dont think once again, foreign ownership makes the league foreign. I think its they way the club is run, its players and its fanbase. And in the Prem you see tons of foreign fans, Asia/US tours, and increasingly, fewer English players. You have players from all over the world (often cheaper labor) coming in and doing a better job than the English. If you want the EPL to get it's English identity back, lower ticket prices and start training children how to properly play football and in 10-15 years we might see a change.

We are also forgetting that England is far more multicultural on a global scale and a more welcoming towards migration/immigrants than Italy is. This plays a huge part and I think our debate is missing it.

I think most fans are fickle when it comes to ownership. They want results and don't care if the owner truly cares or doesn't about the club as long as he/she/it/they don't mess it all up. I would much rather have some passionless bore of an owner than Zamparini (give him some credit for injecting money and making them into a good Serie A side) because you need stability in the high echelons in the game and its one thing they dont have. They have the players, the fans and the stadium and the passion. Just not a same owner at the top and it shows. Just how much did the Tanzis and Cragnottis care about the club? Cecchi Gori? So much that they bankrupted these great (Lazio has history, that's my point, not that I like them, let's not get testy) clubs? Of course they had other worries like Cirio, Parmalat etc... but still. As much as people hate Lotito, he's managed to keep the merda in Serie A and that has to carry some weight.

There are several candidates that Italiamia states, the question is, will they do it? Ever? We'll see a foreign buyout soon enough, I think.

Grasso, I agree, I would ideally hope that the owner would be a fan regardless of nationality.

[Italiamia]

[giallo-rossi.ie]

It is a predictament facing Serie A. With the EPL growing in strength financially, results on the pitch are starting to show. All the best players are starting to go there. The mid-table teams can outbid the top Serie A clubs, with Middlesborough beating us to Alfonso Alves one of many examples. If the trend continues into the long-term, Serie A will be rendered uncompetitive in Europe. More co-efficients will be alloted to England and they have to be deducted from somewhere. We might start losing places.

This is obviously a little extreme but this is what the league is potentially facing. Does Roma (and Serie A) sell out to foreign investors to maintain an even playing field? As much as I want a new stadium and a star signing each season, to me it's just not worth it. Even if Roma were to be televised more as a result of the deal, I would still be against it. Think of the club and what makes it special. Why you support this team and not Chelsea, Milan, Juve, Real, Barca or Man U. Is it really worth ripping the soul out of the team to "up" our game? Are we not doing good enough already?

The Premiershit was pushing for this 39th game abroad Global Circus Inititive (GCI) because its clubs are going into debt. UEFA President Michel Platini said so himself. I am not in possesion of all the facts, but the league spending more than is sustainable at the moment (remind you of anyone?) and that is why I believe they are making this push oversees. It's a sign of things to come. The TV deal ends in 2010 and from what I've read, this is what influenced this ridiculus decision. We can hold out. We can beat any of their sides. We are ROMA!

[maro]

I have to confess, I'm with giallo-rossi on this one. Of course, football is a business, but it's not only a business. Or, at least, for all that it's a business, it's a particular kind of business. It's a distinction I wouldn't expect a synthetic Liverfluke fan like Oily to appreciate. Of course the club could be run better and should be run better and there are many ways in which it could be more competitive without really compromising its soul. Still, the moment the owner or chairman is a businessman first and only a fan second, then something very important is lost. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? I know this goes a bit deeper (and so is much more tenuous) than the ideas we're discussing here, but I think that the more sport is commercialised, the more it loses touch with the things that make it special. The moment sport is only business and only entertainment is the moment I'll stop taking any real interest in it.

[stefano]

To be fair, Maro. Noone here would care for a souless Roma, if such a thing were possible. We would all be equally disgusted. Thankfully, our club is Roma, not some other merda, and any new owner would have to be a fan first or he would quickly find that he has bitten off more than he can chew, let alone swallow.

[maro]

Yes, Grasso, you're right, of course. I guess my point, then, is that I struggle to believe that any American business-man would really appreciate what constitutes the soul of this club. Certainly the sight of Hicks and Gillet wearing Liverpuke scarves after they'd bought the club sickened me - or, at least, would have done if I'd really cared at all.

[oily]

[maro]

[Italiamia]