Article 52 — Response to the Juventus Episode on The Bola Bola Show
This article is a special article, written for my friends at The Bola Bola Show after listening to their podcast on Juventus. I am sharing my views as a fan of Italian football and Inter.
Juventus is Inter’s fiercest rival, the hatred runs deep at both ends and is felt stronger than with our respective city neighbours. Ironically, because of Roberto Baggio and Salvatore Schillaci, I was watching Juventus a lot in the early 90s so some of the names mentioned from the early 90s like Giancarlo Marocchi and Luigi De Agostini are very familiar to me. De Agostini went on to play for Inter as well when I newly became an Inter fan.
I started disliking Juventus first for the treatment of Roberto Baggio. In the early 90s when Juventus was in the shadows of AC Milan, it was Baggio that brought the club the only success that they got, the UEFA Cup. He was their shining beacon of light. Immediately after his appointment as manager, Marcello Lippi decided he wanted to make the team less dependant on Baggio which was a clever thing to do. The burden of leading the team to glory should be shared around the team and not just rest on the shoulders of one man.
Baggio returned from his World Cup exertions in not exactly his best form and was out for 3 months after picking up a knee injury. In his absence, Alessandro Del Piero stepped up which is a good thing. If a team wants to be successful, there must be someone ready to step up to the mantle in the event of a long injury to a key player. After his injury, Baggio increasingly found himself on the periphery but still played his part to the club winning their first Scudetto since 1985–86 and completing the domestic Double with the Coppa Italia.
He was still a player in his prime. I know they had a young star ready to emerge, ready for greater responsibility in Del Piero but it is a disgrace to tell Baggio that he will need to reduce his salary by 50% or he can leave. If they really felt that they want to place their faith in Del Piero, they should have been honest with Baggio that he is now surplus to requirements not twist his arm to force him to leave. If Juventus and Lippi would have put their faith in Baggio, he would have achieved a lot more with the club. It’s not like Juventus regretted the decision as Del Piero justified the faith to step up and claim Baggio’s number 10 jersey and play for the club until he was asked to leave in an unpleasant manner in 2012. Del Piero enjoyed lots of success for Juventus and the low of being relegated to Serie B as punishment for the club’s role in Calciopoli. He will forever be loved by Juventus fans for being one of the main first-team players that decided to stay on and join Juventus in Serie B post-Calciopoli.
Today, Baggio is just like a marginal character in Juventus’ history. He might have been the reason why Juventus gained new fans in the early 90s but many in the club have forgotten of his contribution to the club when he was in his absolute prime.
When I started watching Serie A in the 90s, AC Milan was ruling the roost before Juventus took over in the mid-90s. If I compare the two, I felt Milan’s reign was more impressive because they didn’t just win in Italy, they won everywhere, they won in Europe and on the world stage as well. Juventus did well in Italy, won 1 Champions League, 1 Intercontinental Cup and then consistently fell flat in Europe. Milan will always be the real deal, the real dominant Italian force of the 90s.
Marcello Lippi deserves credit for a lot of Juventus’ successes from the mid-90s to the early 00s. In between, there was a reign of 3 years from 1999–2001 under Carlo Ancelotti. As a Manchester United fan, I know Sir Alex Ferguson always looked at Juventus and Lippi admiringly. They formed a great friendship but I wonder in what language would they converse in because one speaks Scottish English and the other, Italian. Juventus schooled United in the 1996–97 Champions League group stage home and away and it was a vital lesson for Sir Alex and that United team. A season after, United finally beat Juventus in 1997–98 and then we had the famous semi-final of 1998–99. United never looked back after 1996–97 as Sir Alex took the lessons learnt for our future European campaigns.
When it comes to European matches, Juventus are the biggest laughing stock in Italy especially among AC Milan and Inter fans. Milan has won the Champions League/European Cup 7 times in total while Inter has won it 3 times. Juventus has only won it twice which isn’t acceptable for a club that has dominated in their domestic competition by winning the most number of Serie A, Coppa Italia and Suppercoppa Italiana titles. Juventus’ record in Europe’s elite club competition looks pathetic when you see they have been defeated in 7 finals till date, losing their last 5 appearances in a row. For this reason, Juventus will forever be known as a “Raja Kampung” team. A team that is only good in their own backyard, literally translated to Kings of their Village.
On the flip side, I would say that it is not easy to get to the final of the Champions League/European Cup and that deserves credit and commendation. To get there and consistently flunk your lines cannot just be put down to bad luck and jinx. It just shows that the club is missing the mentality to win at the continental stage. The players freeze at the biggest stage and they feel the weight of the past failures on their shoulders.
Calciopoli is a very dark period for Juventus but sweet justice for me as an Inter fan. There have been many cynical comments about Juventus being favoured by referees in crunch matches. Many times the Italian media and opposition teams would have conspiracy theories about the same. Italy is a country that loves it’s conspiracy theories. It is never as straightforward as accepting defeat and moving on, always someone other than themselves has to be blamed. Always someone needs to feel like a victim in a defeat. For these conspiracy theories to then be proven true, it is quite a revelation. It is a shameful past brought to them by former directors Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo.
This doesn’t end here because there are counter-claims that Inter did it too or that Inter orchestrated the whole saga out of spite and jealousy. There are also claims that there is a conflict of interest as AC Milan’s legendary vice-President and CEO, Adriano Galliani was the President of Serie A so Milan got a lighter sentence. Then there are alleged claims of Inter owner, Massimo Moratti and then-chairman the late Giacinto Facchetti’s involvement in this scandal. Till this day, this episode rankles at Juventus’ fans and their current Chairman, Andrea Agnelli has repeatedly tried to reinstate the lost Scudetti to his club without any success.
As an Inter fan, I would say that the competition was tarnished in the years after the Calciopoli. We won consecutive Scudetti but it didn’t feel like we won it against tough and strong competition, the championship was watered down. Italian football suffered because of this scandal. Scudetto success would have felt sweeter had we won it in 1997–98 and/or 2001–02 when the competition was really strong in the league.
What Juventus has done post-Calciopoli and since Agnelli took charge of the club has been commendable. They were the first club in Italy to have their own stadium and through which they can generate greater income for the club. The directors at the club have made good signings over the years to form great teams. The era started by Antonio Conte has lasted 8 seasons now, taken over very intelligently by Massimiliano Allegri.
The work Allegri did to not change much of what Conte had already put in place was very clever and astute. After all the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Slowly, he introduced his ideas and tinkered a bit. I have really admired with envy the great work done behind the scenes at the club and on the pitch as well. Juventus has this tough, strong winning mentality. They are more than capable of grinding out results and get wins even without playing well. It is an annoying trait to have as opposition and it saps your energy and confidence. It is like coming up against a machine, a robot.
To be honest, a lot of this dominance has been in an era where Serie A is no longer the best league in Europe. Serie A’s stock in Europe has fallen more so after the Calciopoli era. Inter is the last Italian team in 2010 to win a European trophy. I genuinely believe that Juventus will not have dominated Serie A for so long if they played at a time when Serie A was the strongest league in the world. The teams that are chasing them have lacked quality, consistency, mental resilience, mental strength and stamina. They are very good sides and in some cases, capable of playing better than Juventus on their day but when the going gets tough, they crumble. There isn’t much substance in these teams.
This effects the quality of the league and the perception of it to neutrals. No-one would be interested to start watching a league that is dominated by one team for so many years. Where every season, one team is almost certain to win the league. The quality on the pitch is obviously not that high which is why one team can dominate for so long. In some seasons, embarrassingly Juventus could give their rivals a head start and still be able to claw back the deficit to win the league.
Juventus and their fans will not mind this dominance but if I was one of them, I would have got bored of it already. I did speak to my friend, the former President of the Juventus Fan Club in Singapore about this and she shared that personally, she doesn’t get bored of it because she remembers the dark days the club had. She is not taking this success the club is enjoying for granted. Without doubt, the trophy that the fans and club really crave would be the Champions League and European dominance. So far, that has been elusive to my joy and relief.
Signing Cristiano Ronaldo irritated me because he was joining a club that is already dominant. It doesn’t do the league any good. It would have been better for the league had he joined one of the challengers. I do know that he was signed with European glory in mind but he has not helped the club achieve it yet. Also, I didn’t want to see a legend, an iconic player for one of my favourite clubs, Manchester United join one of the teams that I hate.
Personally, there was only one match that I supported Juventus in and that is the Champions League semi-final of 2002–03 against Real Madrid. Real had knocked United out in the previous round so I wanted revenge and moreover, I saw it at that time that Juventus were representing Italy so as an Italy fan, I should get behind an Italian team. I have also got the pleasure to get to know many Juventus fans through their participation in my Fan Club Futsal League. Our conversations have been cordial and pleasant with some light bantering. I even organised a Juventus fans tournament last year in conjunction with the International Champions Cup (ICC) when Juventus was in Singapore. I had the pleasure to meet Edgar Davids and David Trezeguet during the tournament.
The hatred for the club will still remain. There will be envy and irritation at their present success but as human beings, I can still be friends with fans of Juventus provided that they are level-headed and respectful as I am with them. Regardless of who we support, we should treat humankind with love and compassion as best as we can in the circumstances that we are in at that moment.
