With each turn of the cycle, it gets more difficult toremember that Italians started the spiral of overspending in soccer. The clubowners, the Moratti family at Inter, the Agnellis at Juventus and Silvio Berlusconi at AC Milan used their wealth to entice foreign starslike Luis Suarez and Ronaldo, John Charles and Michel Platini, Marco van Bastenand George Weah. The owners failed, by and large, to underpin their outlay byinvesting in stadiums, as the top clubs in England and the likes of RealMadrid, have always done. Own the arenasand you command the match-day income. Juventus broke that dependency last yearby building its own stadium and capitalised by winning the Serie A leaguewithout losing a game throughout the season.
However, Juventus starts its defense of that title under afamiliar cloud. Its head coach, Antonio Conte, is barred from attending matchesfor 10 months, and his assistant, Angelo Alessio, barred for six months.Contemaintains that this is victimisation, that he is innocent of any wrongdoing.Juventus claims that it has nothing to do with the current match-fixinginvestigation that keeps revisiting Italian soccer like an untreated toothache.
In 2006, Juve was demoted a division and made to fight itsway back to probity and success. The latest allegations of illegal betting andfixed games do not implicate Juventus. The investigation involved 45 peoplefrom 13 clubs, all of them below the radar of Serie A. “There is one judge whobears a grudge against me,” Conte said Tafter his appeal was rejected by anFIGC tribunal. ‘`It is as if he were a rival supporter. I have been accused ofnot reporting an offense, but I didn’t see anything. Many Italians, includingthe bookmakers, heavily favor Juventus to win the league again this season, nomatter the ban, or partial ban, on the coaches.
It was a current Juventus player, Andrea Pirlo, whodemonstrated his imperious play-making powers at Euro 2012, when Italy, againstthe background of the corruption investigation that encroached on itspreparations, reached the final in July.
And since then, Juventus has been adding to its corestrength. Under Conte’s direction, the squad has recruited Lucio, the Braziliancentral defender, from Inter; Mauricio Isla and Kwadwo Asamoah from Udinese;and has re-signed a former creative player, Sebastian Giovinco from Parma,against whom it started the new season.
