Reality check needed in Italian football

EUROSCENE: Football registered a rare good deed yesterday. At the end of yet another weekend marked by violent fan behaviour, by complaints about refereeing and by concern about the game's creaking finances, a delegation from the Italian national team made its way to San Giuliano di Puglia, the little Molise village that two weeks ago was rocked by an earthquake which claimed the lives of 29 people, including 26 small children.

Italian internationals Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta, Damiano Tommasi and Gigi Di Biagio took time off from preparations for tomorrow night's friendly at home to Turkey to attend the formal re-opening yesterday of school classes in San Giuliano.

Fitted with bright yellow safety helmets, they and team coach Giovanni Trapattoni visited the ugly pile of twisted metal and concrete rubble where the children, aged three to 10, lost their lives when their school building collapsed on top of them.

Later the players were the guests of honour at an informal reception where they mixed with the surviving class-mates of the dead children.

One would like to think that the visit to San Giuliano might have given some members of the football community - players, managers, club presidents, administrators - a wake-up call. To lose a big match, to have a dubious penalty given against you, to see your best players unfairly sent off, what is that compared with the pain and suffering of parents who stood alongside an ugly pile of rubble for a long cold night only to see their little babies pulled out dead?

Experiences like yesterday's visit to San Giuliano should change the football world's perspectives. Of course, we all know that they will not. The great FootBiz Show must go on and, as it does so, it is certainly not getting any the less hysterical, histrionic or exaggerated.

At Cagliari yesterday, on the lovely island of Sardinia, the second division game between Cagliari and Messina was suspended in the 82nd minute following a pitch invasion by a solitary fan who attacked the Messina goalkeeper Emanuele Manitta from behind, hitting him so hard that the player was knocked unconscious. At the time, need one add, Cagliari were losing 0-1.

To make matters worse, the attacker escaped back into the crowd, although thanks to TV footage and photographic evidence, the man was subsequently identified.

All of that was bad, but, in many ways, it was much worse to hear the Cagliari owner-president Massimo Cellino complain after the match that he and his club have been the object of blackmail attempts on the part of extremist elements among the Cagliari fans. The basic message was a request for money, otherwise they would organise pitch invasions and other disturbances that would cost the club dear at federation disciplinary proceedings.

Twenty-four hours before that, AS Roma's vastly experienced and worldly-wise coach Fabio Capello let his post-match frustration get the better of him when he threatened to pack his bags and work abroad if refereeing standards in Italy do not improve. Capello had been enraged by one or two calls during Roma's 2-2 top-of-the- table game with Inter Milan on Saturday night.

Capello's frustration after a match Roma should have won convincingly is understandable. However, it was some woefully sloppy Roma defensive work that let Inter off the hook, not the refereeing of Salvatore Racalbuto.

Part of the FootBiz Show these days, however, requires plenty of post-curtain theatrics. Capello shouted and so the next time a referee will hesitate just that little longer before blowing against Roma. Maybe they should all pay San Giuliano di Puglia a visit.