OP-ED: Are UEFA refs picking on Italian teams? (Yes)
Juventus in last year's Champions League final, and now against Bayern Munich. Napoli in their Europa League semi-final against Dnipro, and now against Villareal. Roma against Real, Lazio in Istanbul... over the past few months, not a single decision seems to go Calcio's way, denying Serie A teams penalties and allowing clearly irregular goals against them. And yet, bizarrely, the refereeing designator is a certain Pierluigi Collina. You may have heard of him: he's Italian.
We're not blind or clueless enough to not recognize when Italian teams are outplayed. Bayern, for example, dominated the first hours' play against Juventus, and were very much legitimately two goals ahead, never really struggling against Italy's defending champions. That said, football isn't boxing, or gymastics: you don't get points for style, or for how long you could pull a fancy move off: you get rewarded for scoring goals, not playing well, two concepts that often don't go hand in hand in the beautiful game.
Though Guardiola's charges had done better by the time the first half was coming to an end, it was Juventus who should have been ahead. Arturo Vidal should have conceded a penalty for blatantly handling the ball in the box... and Thomas Muller's goal should have been chalked off for an indisputable offside.
Even Arjen Robben's goal was suspect, seeing as Lewandowki's challenge on Bonucci should have arguably warranted the referee's whistle. Bayern may have certainly deserved to be 2-0 up, but they wouldn't have had the referee's calls not leaned heavily in their favour. Luckily for them, Juventus hit back, and proved to be stronger than Bayern (in the last 30 minutes, anyway), stronger even than Martin Atkinson and whoever decided that he should referee just a prestigious encounter.
This absolutely embarassing officiating is nothing but the umpteenth chapter of a story in which the Italian character is eventually RKO'd. It should be the straw that broke the camel's back... and should prompt FA president Giorgio Tavecchio to come out in protest at this trend, and demand an explanation as to why Serie A teams have been on the receiving end of such unfair treatment.
We strongly suspect, however, that he won't do anything. Italy has very little political clout at the moment, and our president (not to mention the Federation) have almost zero personality, so we'll just turn the other cheek. What else will it take for them to wake up and let their voices be heard?
Stefano Agresti (@steagresti), translated by @EdoDalmonte
