SERIE A Season under threat?

Originally Posted by zlatanov

Oh, yeah. I was there for both of the practice sessions and watched them VERY carefully who was trying to sneek out between the excercises and who gave it all . The training sessions were on the Boston College Campus from 10.00 am and 6.00 pm local time. The second session was scheduled for 5.00 - this was on the official website - so I was there at 4.30 and had to wait for them bastards for more than 1.5 hours . Took some pix but no autographs for this is a rule of thumb I have - no sigs from entertainers but only from people with truely great achievements ... I am sure it sounds crazy but that's the way it is.
The game is from 7.00 pm local time at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. It is about 40-50 min from where I live but I won't be going . I bought a ticket - 85 bucks including convenience charge - but late Sunday morning I just have to leave for New York. Gave my ticket to a friend of mine and that bastard will support Chelski ... go figure ... but I guess friend are like that

I figured you'd be there you lucky b@stard! Bro you now have the burden to be the on site analysis for us at Milanmania. Shoot us up my man! A new thread would be cool if youre up to the task. Many Thanks!

As it turned out, I didn't miss that much of a game on Sunday. In fact, from the very beginning, I wasn't too excited about watching Milan so early in the prep season and would have prefered them coming to Boston for some serious games with a full-strength squad but ...
I must say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed watching them train and especially liked those 8 vs 8 games they often finish the sessions with. Vieri, unlike in the game vs Chelski, played very well in that training game during the morning session and scored 2-3 goals for his team. In the evening session, however, he looked a bit out of sorts and missed a couple of sitters but it is still very early into the new season so I forgave him immediately .
From the other players, I was very impressed by Ele, Cafu, Rui Costa, and Seedorf. Ele even lead part of the warm ups in the morning training and counted 1-2-3 in Greek. The rest of course made fun of him
Marzoratti and Vogel also did pretty well with the latter scoring a screamer in Fiori's goal during the morning game. I must say that Simic does the excersices with lots of enthusiasm, something I didn't expect to see from a player, who rarely gets a chance to play. In the 8 vs 8 game, however, the Croatian was easily the worst player on the pitch, along with rusty Gattuso that is Carlo also scolded Simic on one occasion for not being positioned well during a Pirlo cross but apart from that he did well in defence ... trust me, you don't wanna know how he did attacking on the right flank
All in all, there was a lot of enthusiasm in the group and, apart from Billy, who seemed to be a bit too relaxed and "slacking", all of them put in a lot of effort in the training. All of them looked quite friendly and were joking with each other all the time. Just before the evening session, Rui was on his way to the dressing rooms to get ready for training when he was surrounded by a bunch of children, and not only, for pix and autographs. The guy spent like 5-10 min satisfying all requests - pretty nice and down-to-earth guy, I must say.

EDIT: I know lots of BS has been said about Seedorf but he was one of the best throughout the training and is easily the most capable of all Milan players with the ball in his feet - even more so than Rui and Pirlo. You should see him juggling with the ball, very impressive indeed.
His shots are very accurate too, unlike what he showed in some games last season. After the evening session, Clarence satyed with Fiori and practiced shooting from 25 meters or so - his shots had deadly accuracy and extreme power. I know some may find it hard to believe but he is probably the best shooter in the whole team ... maybe he gets a bit too nerveous during games and this affects his shots, but Ancelotti and Vecchi didn't chose him by chance to practice shots with Fiori.

Thanks for the info Zlat....it is nice to know so much about our team...how lucky you are!!

Glad to see that Rui Costa is a gentleman, he is one of my favourite players....

Seedorf's shooting ability has been known to man since serveral years! Too bad he's freaking invisible so often...

From:http://skysports.planetfootball.com/...=football_home

Messina have suffered a major blow in their bid to play in Serie A next season, with the news that their appeal to the Italian Olympic Committee Council (CONI) has been rejected.

The Italian Football Federation ask every club to prove that their finances are on a sound basis before the start of each season, and the failure of Messina to do so means that they face being rejected from Italy's top flight after finishing seventh last season.

Club president Pietro Franza thought he had solved the problem after he presented documents showing that Messina had seemingly cleared their economical situation.

However, the CONI have refused the appeal, meaning Messina must now take the further option of appealing to Lazio's regional court. In the case of another negative response, the club would then have to turn to the State Council as a last resort to retain their Serie A status.

Fellow Italians Bologna will be monitoring the situation closer than most, as they are most likely to be reinstated to the top division after losing their relegation play-off against Parma.

Another one bites the dust, yeah, another one bites the dust, hey, I´m gonna get you too, another one bits the dust...

Sorry to see Messina looking down and out for the count...but that must have been their problem, their poor "accounting"..

Genoa have been demoted to Serie C1 instead of gaining the automatic promotion to Serie A that they thought they had gained!Whilst the club deserve all they get it must be hugely dissapointing for the supporters who presumeably played no part in the match fixing!They do have the right to appeal which they will probably take up and that could lead to further delays in the fixture list being published.Any more news on Torino?

sop atm serie a has just 17 teams ready for the new season, i hope they see sense and make it back to an 18 team league.

From http://football.guardian.co.uk/break...170710,00.html

Italy's conspiracies not just a theory
By Simon Evans
MILAN, July 27 (Reuters) - There is a simple reason why people in Italian football are so quick to talk of conspiracies, plots and match-fixing -- in Italy they really happen.

The latest proof of the murky underbelly of Italian football came on Wednesday when newly-promoted Genoa were demoted from Serie A to the third division after the Italian Football League found evidence of match-fixing.
The League's disciplinary commission investigated a 250,000 euro ($301,700) payment from Genoa to their opponents Venezia before the final Serie B game of the season and said telephone taps showed it was aimed at "guaranteeing" the result.

It is by no means the first time that a team has been punished for involvement in illicit payments or attempts to arrange matches.
AC Milan and Lazio were both demoted to Serie B in 1980 over a bribery scam. The same year, international striker Paolo Rossi was among 20 players suspended for fixing games.

Rossi was given a three-year ban, later reduced to two. He resumed playing just before the 1982 World Cup and finished as top scorer as he helped Italy to win the tournament.

In all those cases it was revenue from gambling that inspired the players to cheat and that problem has never gone away.
Last year six players from the top two divisions were banned in gambling-related match-fixing.

Serie B club Modena were punished and defender Stefano Bettarini then with Sampdoria and who played once for Italy, received a five-month ban and his club was fined.

Giuseppe Papadopulo, who was coach of Serie A club Siena, was banned for five months and the club's defender Roberto D'Avera was given six months after the uncovering of a Naples based illegal gambling racket.

BRIBE EXPOSED
The Genoa case is unusual in that a bribe to help gain promotion was exposed. While there is no shortage of suspicion and finger pointing about match-fixing in Italy, rarely has action been taken on non-gambling related allegations.

In May, the dull goalless draw in the derby between AS Roma and Lazio was played out to chants of "You've all agreed it" while the capital's main newspaper Il Messaggero branded the match "the derby of shame" and Corriere dello Sport described the match as "squalid". There was no suggestion that money had changed hands in relation to the derby -- merely that the point was useful to both sides then struggling to keep out of the relegation zone.

The common perception in Italy is that corruption is much more rife in the lower divisions -- a view that was given some credibility by an account in the book 'The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro' written by American Joe McGinniss.
Castel Di Sangro, the club from a town with a population of just 5,000, had risen from the lower leagues to Serie B but at the end of their first campaign in the second division, McGinniss overheard a conversation between players ahead of an end of season trip to Bari.

The players discussed the details of how they were to lose the game -- and then the next day they lost in exactly the fashion discussed.
But there was no investigation into the match.

In August 1999, Italians were given another taste of corruption from an un-named player who wrote a letter of confession to the popular weekly magazine Famiglia Cristiana.

"Dear Father...I am a footballer and I have sold myself in an important match," read the letter.
"I have behaved in a way which has harmed my team because I was tempted by promises of a great contract...I know I have distorted the championship, but who will forgive me for what I've done?"
"These and other things go on in the world of football," the letter read. "The flow of money has killed everything and I have become a victim."

Wow...and I thought we went down in 80 because of purely football reasons....

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

From http://football.guardian.co.uk/break...170710,00.html

Wow...and I thought we went down in 80 because of purely football reasons....

Bribing and match fixing ARE "purely football reasons" in Italian football

Lol

this is all getting too confusing; im losing track of it

So genoa's demoted and I heard that bologna somehow managed to be reinstated to serie a?

That may very well be the case sehnucht79....

The problem is, and I'm sorry to say this, is Italy is one of the most corrupt western societies.

I don't know how they get off with half the things they do.

True

I think the clubs are still appealing to the FIGC; and Serie A will still be a 20 team league; only the problem now is to determine who the other 3 teams will be.

Can anyone tell me why we went to 20 teams? Is this a UEFA dictate or something? I dont recall other leagues having that many teams...

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

Can anyone tell me why we went to 20 teams? Is this a UEFA dictate or something? I dont recall other leagues having that many teams...

actually La Liga and the prem have had 20 teams for quite some time.