A journey that began 20 years ago has come full circle

frafiomatale (78)in #news • 4 days ago

_{Photo taken from TV image}

This is the English version of the post Si chiude un cerchio iniziato 20 anni fa, originally published in Italian in the ITALY community.

Bitterness. Even before disappointment, anger, or "suffering", this is the first feeling that lingers after yet another failure of Italian football: a deep and endless bitterness. Italy, a land of geniuses, saints, explorers, and poets, capable of producing excellence in every field of everyday life, as well as in many sports, is no longer able, in football terms, to compete even with opponents of infinitely lower rank, such as Bosnia.

If this is not the lowest point of a system that once dominated the global scene around the 1990s and 2000s, and that even when it did not win was always able to hold its own and fight on equal terms with the very best, then it is hard to imagine anything worse.

Once, not so long ago, only Brazil or Argentina had real chances of beating us. Then, in an endless downward spiral, came France and Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, North Macedonia and Norway, and finally Bosnia. A football history spanning over a century brought to its knees by a small Balkan country of just three million inhabitants, whose center forward is a forty-year-old already discarded by mid- and lower-tier Serie A clubs.

At club level, things are, if possible, even worse. The gap with the elite of European football is ruthless, and while it once took a real feat to knock out Italian teams from competitions, today even a Bodo Glimt, a Pafos, or a Galatasaray is enough.

We can pretend not to see reality, blame referees, bad luck, weather conditions, or poor pitches, but the truth is only one: yesterday perfectly closed a twenty-year cycle, which began when someone decided to dismantle the excellence of Italian football, Juventus and Milan (especially the former), replacing them with those who never used to win.

Yesterday, it was not just Italy as a national team that lost, but an entire system that for twenty years has pursued a single goal: to pave the way for Inter, protect it from trouble, and favor it in every possible way over its two great rivals, whom it has historically almost never managed to beat on its own.

Italy losing even to Bosnia reflects our poor sports journalism, led by that pink newspaper, which in an attempt to save its "friends" from the deep financial abyss they are in, is forced to portray their players as world-class talents with wildly inflated valuations.

This latest embarrassment is also the result of those who describe mediocre players like Bastoni, Dimarco, or Esposito as top talents sought after by the biggest clubs in the world, hoping that someone, somewhere, will take the bait and help partially restore the finances of those who should have already declared bankruptcy long ago.

Our footballing downfall is mirrored in a federation and a biased judiciary that saw the issue of organized crime infiltration within Inter (and consequently throughout the league), but chose to look the other way, easing their conscience with a few match bans and minor fines.

And here we are again, crying, questioning the reasons behind yet another collapse, wondering what measures should be taken to rise again, while the reality—huge and glaring before everyone’s eyes—is simply ignored, out of fear (no one wants to stand against the mafia), pride, envy, or simple narrow-mindedness.

A country that deliberately destroys its own excellence (especially one of them), hoping to replace it with its own allies, does only one thing: it cuts the branch it is sitting on. And that is exactly what has happened in Italy since Calciopoli.

Imagine Germany trying to destroy Bayern and Dortmund, Spain ostracizing Real Madrid and Barcelona, or France eliminating PSG: the result would likely be the collapse of their football systems. But there is a key difference between them and us: they are not foolish enough to do it.

What once were the ramblings of a few "crazy" fans have become the cries of many, and since yesterday—except for a few diehards driven by pure sporting hatred or lifelong inferiority complexes—the awareness of an entire nation.

And so, it is no coincidence that the cycle closed thanks to Inter players: Bastoni, unsporting and responsible for one of the worst acts ever seen on a football pitch; Dimarco, "the best player in the league", constantly beaten by a young Bosnian player; and the "new Van Basten", Pio Esposito, capable of missing clear chances and the penalty that decided the final shootout.

However, to truly end these two decades of horror for Italian football, one final piece is missing: the removal of Gravina. Yes, removal, because only CONI can save us from this nightmare by placing the federation under administration, since, as already stated many times, the guarantor of the system is not allowed by his "friends" to step down.