After Calciopoli, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. It felt like an outdated chapter, not just for football, but for sport in general. But no. Here we go again, and here we go again heavily if we consider that two of the most watched events in the world have been spoiled. The rugby world championship and the motorcycle world championship. Evidence? Investigations launched? Certainly not. Opinions, however dictated by stringent and disturbing facts, which anger and tighten the stomach of all true sportsmen. Opinions that would be so happy to be disproved by facts proven by these investigations that they would stand there saying No, there was nothing wrong: here is the proof. But the respective establishments are there to pretend that everything is fine, that there is nothing rotten even in sports corners of the world that have never been soiled by political intrigues to fix games.
MOTOGP 2015 FINAL: IBERIAN COOKIE TAPAS
Few in the world by now will not know of the controversies that arose from the last MotoGP race. There is therefore no need to recap what happened. Valentino Rossi was cut out of the fight for his tenth world title (of which he was the main candidate as he was first in the standings) by a race direction decision which penalized him for kicking Marquez's bike during an exhausting and seemingly meaningless duel. Yes, because the tussle between the two started from the first laps, when everyone should aim to finish as far in front as possible. Which, in doing so, is clearly impossible: by slowing down in a duel of overtaking at each corner, the hares in the two front positions are left to escape with unsettling ease. Then why?
Lorenzo moves into second position within two corners. Marquez gets ahead of Rossi and systematically slows down his race pace by several tenths. When he falls, thrown by Rossi's bionic foot, the latter is six seconds down, six behind the breakaway couple Pedrosa-Lorenzo. A few hours later, Il Sole 24 Ore published an illuminating article in which it highlighted the four reasons why the penalty for Rossi appears at least out of place. Two is enough though. One, a kick from a man doesn't have the power to bring down a MotoGP bike, which must have a minimum weight of 158kg. Rossi would be a bionic Jean Claud Van Damm capable of dropping a mass of more than 200kg in full stroke with a flick of the leg. Second, Marquez is already in a fall when the leg of the always bionic Rossi detaches from the footpeg. As you wanted to prove.
The Spanish intrigue appears all too evident when Lorenzo comments on the Sky Italia microphones on the incident, saying that Rossi should arrive in Valencia at a disadvantage compared to him in the world rankings. That alone would have been a right decision for the Majorcan. He sadness on all fronts. A Valentino who had never lost his lucidity in his career saw it slip away in one of the most important moments. The instinct, the desire to prevail, the primordial cry to establish who is the strongest have defeated the rigid calculator, the cold strategist, the expert champion.
Despite the condemnation of the Spanish newspapers, solidarity with the doctor is unanimous in Italy. Coni is also on his side: “Valentino fell for the provocation and it seems to me that he too recognized it. There is a responsibility on his part, but I absolutely want to defend him and not for an institutional fact: I believe that in doing so the World Cup has been distorted and I don't find this right. I am particularly close to Valentino and I hug him tightly”. These are the words spoken by Giovanni Malagò, number one in Italian sport. “I understand his regret and his anger – he added on the sidelines of an event linked to fencing – because objectively it would be an extraordinary result for him to win this tenth World Cup after an amazing season. If I could give him some advice, I would instead tell him to participate so as not to give excuses and satisfaction to the people who have created these problems".
All that remains is to hope for an Italian limelight on Spanish soil, with the Ducatisti subjecting the Spaniards to the most difficult problems of their lives. To give Valentino time to recover from that distant last position to which he was forced by an unequal and cowardly decision. Provided that the Doctor decides to take to the track, since he has already leaked that he is thinking of not racing at all. Gesture of protest that would not only be legitimate, but also understandable if not shareable.
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015: PUPPET REFEREES OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOARD
A pamphlet should be written on all the shadow referees of this World Cup, at least since the knockout phase began. Due to the burden of space and time, we will only deal with the most evident and heartbreaking case of an ever more pressing presence in the playing fields of political logics that have very little to do with the game. The semi-final just now between the Argentine Pumas and the Australian Wallabies is the ideal lens to unmask an all too much interference of preferences above the values that are expressed between the two accas.
Yesterday's match demonstrated all the behavioral limits of the South Americans, hasty and imprecise, too caught up in the heat of wanting everything at once. However, there is a however as big as Argentina itself. Australia has been objectively favored by a ridiculous refereeing by the usual Barnes, who is a proven expert of science fiction refereeing for years of shocking directions. As done for the Rossi-Marquez-Lorenzo short story, let's go and see the facts.
The Argentine scrum, as all those who have approached an oval screen at least once in their life know, are the strongest in the world. You demonstrated it well yesterday as well, were it not for the fact that you did not collect what would have been due to you. At every scrum, or nearly so, the Australian front row would commit a foul (be it kneeling, pushing up or in, an illegal bind, an intentional collapse), often not evidenced by the jammed whistle of the blond referee, or not sanctioned properly. Yes, because when a foul becomes systematic, in rugby the yellow card is automatically triggered, which means 10 minutes in 14. In the case of scrums involving the third consecutive foul, the yellow card is the order. An out front line means bringing in another one almost always in place of a third line: the most powerful weapon of the Australians. Coincidences, right? Not a yellow for the Wallabies.
Punishment for Argentina, there must be ten meters of regulation space between attack and defence. The Pumas half plays fast and is tackled inside the free area. Here the automatic card should click without hesitation. But no. Barnes takes out the card a few minutes later, the yellow card. Against the Pumas though. Closed shoulder tackle on the opponent's knee. Rugby apparently is approaching classical dance in terms of physical contact, so at the first foul, or at least presumed foul, Argentine here is 10 minutes in the Sin Bin.
Finally, on the expiry of the first half, the Pumas became the protagonists of an action from the annals of sport. They are, alas, stopped by a referee tens of meters away from the action who decrees a forward to the biancocelesti on a back pass clearly touched back by an Argentine. It is not enough. In the scrum that follows, the Australian prop lies flat on the ground like the most comfortable bather in Torvajanica (South Rome), waiting for his team to calmly kick the oval in the corner for rest after the hard-earned 40 minutes.
Australia wins, which is up to the challenge seen and reviewed with Captain McCaw's All Blacks. Yes, the one who is always offside and elbowed an opponent in the semifinals. But it's McCaw, he's from New Zealand, he's the sport's most important ambassador, it's perhaps his last appearance for the national team and much more certainly his last in a World Cup, let alone in a final. There's no denying him this red carpet to a glory he already owns in spades.
Well. Forget all the talk about the fairness of this sport, about the different values, about the honesty and clarity of the dynamics of the oval world. If these still prevail on the pitch, among professionals and colleagues, often friends – as seen in the now famous image of Williams embracing the defeated opponent Kriel after 80 minutes of yesterday's semifinal – they have nothing more to do with the high spheres of oval reality. In no other area of the present, conspiracy theories against the ruling system are so well founded and are found as much as in top-level international rugby. From the 6 Nations, to the Rugby Championship at the World Cup there is always a hierarchy dictated by the International Board and enforced by puppet referees like Barnes who always sees the All Blacks at the top, then Ireland, then Australia, South Africa and then the others. Woe to get in the way. Got it Pumas?
