The popcorn are ready

frafiomatale (78)in #sports • 9 days ago

This is the English version of the post I popcorn sono già pronti, originally published in Italian in the ITALY community.

Have you prepared the popcorn? Two or three events that could soon occur on the international stage — and I’m talking about different fields, from geopolitics to sports — promise to be truly “tasty” and unmissable, especially for the reactions and the hasty bandwagon jumping that will inevitably follow.

However, for those who don’t feel like waiting the months that separate us from those events, the present already seems more than enough to entertain us, especially if we focus on the fantastic world of the “Gravina Circus,” the theater of the absurd into which the entire Italian football system has turned.

A world in which, for incidents occurring outside the stadium, certain groups of supporters rightly experience the “iron fist,” paying with away-match bans until the end of the season for the misconduct of troublemakers, yet where, if you belong to the “state faction” and throw a firecracker at the head of an opposing team’s player, you get away with little more than a slap on the wrist.

In the “Gravina Circus,” if, as a victim, you report organized crime interference in your supporters’ section, you are suspended for twelve months (with an initial request of thirty), but if you wear the right-colored tuxedo and maintain regular relations with said “gentlemen,” even facilitating their shady dealings, you get away with a single match ban, to be served in a meaningless home game.

In the masterpiece by George Orwell, Animal Farm, the phrase “The law is equal for all” is at one point interpreted with a sensational addition: “but some are more equal than others.” And here one recalls the words of good old Giraudo, the day after the Calciopoli verdict: “You’ll see what kind of bandits will come after us...”

At the circus, by definition, you certainly cannot expect reality. Animals are forced to perform movements that, if they lived in nature, they would never even dream of doing; clowns dress in ways they never would in real life; and even the presenters speak in an affected voice completely different from the one they use when ordering coffee at the bar in the morning.

WATCH HERE THE DOUBLE INTERPRETATION BY MARELLI (DAZN) ON IDENTICAL INCIDENTS INVOLVING INTER AND JUVENTUS

And in the one directed by the president of the FIGC, things run almost the same way, like a gigantic, millionaire show of the absurd. Listen to this: if a player shoots and scores from outside the box while a teammate stands beyond the defense (offside) and in the ball’s path, without touching it, the goal is allowed, provided the offside player is at a reasonable distance from the goalkeeper (not interfering, to be clear).

This is the rule. But listen to this as well: if a player shoots and scores from outside the box while a teammate stands beyond the defense (offside) and in the ball’s path, without touching it, the goal must be disallowed because he interferes with the goalkeeper, even if the offside player is at a reasonable distance from the goalkeeper (not interfering, to be clear).

And no, this is not a joke, nor another of Orwell’s dramatic hyperboles, but what happens every Sunday in refereeing interpretations, now no longer tied to the rulebook but exclusively to the color of the jersey. A kind of wrestling, where the “villain,” often in agreement with the referee or with those running the whole show, wins by committing every possible foul. And the “good guy” (or if you prefer, “the fool”) must resign himself to losing, even when he doesn’t deserve it, because that’s the script.

WATCH HERE IDENTICAL HANDBALLS INTERPRETED IN TWO OPPOSITE WAYS

The big difference, however, is that in wrestling everything is openly staged for the audience’s entertainment, even through moments designed to make them angry, whereas football, in theory, should be a sport where the best team wins. Want another one? If a player deliberately kicks the ball against a defender’s arm inside the box, it is a handball and a penalty. But if the exact same thing happens three days later, the ball is deemed unexpected and can never be a penalty.

Ladies and gentlemen, you can watch this mess yourselves — a system that, in order to protect the state-backed team and sink its rival, is driving Italian football deeper and deeper into the abyss. Much better other sports and, speaking of which, applause to the great Francesca Lollobrigida, two gold medals as a mother, complete with a final sign of the Cross.

Now, let’s get back to the popcorn...