Capello facing Real challenge

NEVER was the sport business politics fusion, central to modern soccer, more obvious than in the Italian general election. While Italy awaited its electoral fate, AC Milan fans waited for the election to be over in order to know the fate of club coach Fabio Capello, who allegedly is about to join Spanish club Real Madrid.

The link between the election and Capello, of course, comes in the guise of AC Milan's owner, media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister and the leader of the centre right coalition which narrowly lost last weekend's election.

For months, informed media speculation has suggested that Capello's future at Milan is in doubt, indicating first Parma and then Real Madrid as his future destination. Only last week, Real president Lorenzo Sanz confirmed the consistent rumours when admitting that his club had been in contact with Capello, adding that Real and Capello's lawyers had already drawn up a contract (worth $2.5 million a year after tax) which only required Capello's signature.

Capello has consistently refused to comment on the speculation, saying only that he wished to wait until Milan had this year's championship mathematically sewn up and until after the election when, finally, Berlusconi might take time off front politics to discuss AC Milan affairs.

Just to underline the sport politics link, however, one experienced Milan watcher told The Irish Times last week that Berlusconi had asked Capello to delay any decision/announcement about his future until after the election.

Given Capello's winning record, Berlusconi was allegedly reluctant to risk losing the votes of Milan fans dissatisfied with the seemingly unjustified dismissal of his team coach.

Last weekend might have resolved the entire question since Milan could have wrapped up the title on Saturday, on the eve of the vote. In the end, they were held to a 1-1 draw away to relegation battlers Torino while European Cup finalists and second placed Juventus beat Inter Milan 2-1 away.

Despite dropping two points, however, Milan still seem certain to pick up their fourth title in five years under Capello. They now lead Juventus by seven points with three games to play and need only three points from their final three games to claim the title.

At first glance, the possible departure of Capello makes no sense. Four titles in five seasons of a championship as pressurised, competitive and technically demanding as Italy's Serie A represents a stupendous record.

However, Capello has fallen foul of internal club critics, in particular vice president Adriano Galliani, the man delegated by Berlusconi to run the club in his absence. Galliani and others in the Berlusconi $7 billion Fininvest Group have always looked on Milan as a "loss leader", a company flagship which is under no obligation to return a profit, but which must be seen to be not only a winner at home and abroad, but also a stylish, spectacular winner.

Capello's critics argue that his Milan practises an effective but at times dull and cautious soccer which wins Italian titles but which has lost two European Cup finals as well as two Intercontinental Cup finals.

If Capello accepts the Madrid offer, as seems highly likely, then he will certainly find himself in an extremely "hot" seat.

Madrid president Sanz was anything but equivocal when outlining his expectations for Capello last week, saying: "The first thing he's got to do is win. Next year, we want to win the (Spanish) title so that we'll get back into the Champions Cup because that's our objective. I want to bring the European Cup back to Madrid."

The reality about the six tame European champions Real Madrid is that 20 years have passed since they last won the trophy, while at the moment they are in sixth place 20 points adrift of league leaders Atletico Madrid and, as such, not even guaranteed to qualify the UEFA Cup next season.

It would be asking a lot of Real, beaten 2-1 by fourth placed Espanol on Sunday, to immediately win a Spanish title never mind a European Cup.