The blow finally came. The Disciplinary made its decision official today: two penalty points in the current Napoli standings for strict liability and six-month disqualification each for Paolo Cannavaro and Gianluca Grava, both for failure to report the alleged match-up between Sampdoria and Napoli in May 2010. last day of the championship finished 1-0 for the Ligurians.
Yes, that's right: a sporting offense only attempted, by the then third goalkeeper Matteo Gianello and in which the two players still in the Napoli squad did not participate, will cost them the entire season and the team a sword of Damocles which, pending the inevitable appeals, he has already conditioned two rounds of the championship, given that he has been hanging over the club and the two registered players for at least ten days.
The penalty was thus even heavier than the initial request made by the prosecutor Stefano Palazzi himself, by virtue of the "lack of collaboration" of goalkeeper Gianello (also tried by the Naples prosecutor's office for sports fraud), who was in fact denied a plea deal. Precisely the tightening of the sentence for the former Azzurri player, who was disqualified for 3 years and 3 months, got even more trouble, by extension, the two former team-mates and the Neapolitan club, for which he played from 2004 to 2011 .
Gianello's foolishness (and later the uncooperative attitude) precipitate Napoli, already in crisis after the sensational home defeat against Bologna, in the following scenario: points in the standings from 33 to 31, and consequent slip from third to fifth place , to the advantage of Lazio and Fiorentina, therefore increasingly distant from Juve and Inter and with Roma breathing down his neck, at 29, and even the revived Milan at 27. Not only that: the starting central defender, as well as team captain, Paolo Cannavaro , will remain out for the whole season (or close to it), with rather worrying consequences on the stability of a department already in obvious difficulty.
But is the penalty for De Laurentiis' club fair or not? To understand this, just make some comparisons, since the law is and should be the same for everyone. Two other teams, in Serie A, were penalized for a situation similar to that of Napoli: Sampdoria and Turin. The blucerchiati were on trial for objective and presumed liability for the position of Stefano Guberti, deferred for a sporting offense, and they settled for a fine of 1 point and 30 thousand euros. Exactly the same fate befell Toro for the offense of Alessandro Pellicori, for the Siena-Turin match on May 7, 2011 which finished 2-2. Both companies have therefore reduced the penalty to one point thanks to the plea bargain, and the same could happen to the Neapolitans if they finally decide to follow the same path.
Which currently seems unlikely given that through the words of the ds Bigon Napoli has repeatedly reiterated that it considers itself an injured party, and that it prefers that justice take its course, thus aiming for acquittal or a super fine. Apparently, however, the fate of Napoli seems in line with that of the other affected teams, but there are still two reasons for doubt. The first concerns the position of Gianello, treated more harshly than that of Guberti and Pellicori, who also committed the offense unlike the goalkeeper. It may also be true, as Palazzi maintains, that the player did not cooperate, but rejecting the plea agreement with him means indirectly nailing Napoli to a greater responsibility, which in any case it does not have except by virtue of the principle of strict liability.
But above all, it is the timing of the sentence that arouses understandable discontent. A first, large tranche of clubs and players were in fact judged and disqualified in time, within the summer and before the start of the championship. Of others, such as Stefano Mauri, who even ended up in prison and whose position seemed to be one of the most compromised, nothing has even been heard from. Still others, such as Bonucci, were saved from very heavy sentences (3 years and 3 months were asked for the black and white player), but managed not to lose even a minute of football played. Finally, there would be the long-awaited chaos mentioned on 9 October by the Chief of Police Massimo Manganelli, who spoke of "half of Serie A at risk", with "sensational news" on the way.
More than two months have passed, but at the moment the only club that is paying its bill with justice in the current championship, or rather in the midst of the tussle of a championship now close to the halfway point, is Napoli. This aspect, beyond the scudetto dreams that have rightly faded due to their own demerits, will undoubtedly end up giving the pursuers an advantage in a fight for the Champions League that will become increasingly close, when it is clear that Napoli, despite what they did on the field, he deserved to be able to handle it with greater serenity.
