Calcio: A History of Italian Football. John Foot

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СКАЧАТЬ the film stops, and Tognazzi turns to the camera and says – ‘Moviola’. He then comments on where his life has gone wrong. The word moviola became part of both football language and language in general. An episodio da moviola is a controversial incident that is guaranteed to be analysed time and time again. Footballers, when interviewed, would often say ‘Vedremo stasera alla moviola’: ‘We’ll check that on the replay this evening’. Nowadays, they are asked to comment immediately on replays, as soon as they have showered. There is no more need to wait for the evening. During matches in Italy, a football commentator is assigned to the bench area, commentating in detail on the activities of the managers and substitutes. He will often pass on information concerning controversial incidents to the bench. Moviola replay judgements are thus ‘seen’ in real time, by those involved in games, whilst the game is still in progress.

      Replays are generally seen as having the last word, as containing an absolute truth that could not be sorted out by the referee on the field. La moviola ci dirà se… ‘the moviola will let us know if…’. Televisual truth is everything. Real-time action, even for those who played in the game, is always in doubt. Only TV can tell us what has really happened. Replays have changed the spectator’s relationship with sport, forever, and the game is now ‘told’ to us by others. We need – we demand – a televisual version of something we have already seen, in order to understand it. In Italy, the moviola has taken on a particular power thanks to the enormous lack of confidence in the ability, or willingness, of referees to objectively officiate matches. In a society where bias is assumed, the moviola has become the only judge whose verdict is worthy of trust.²⁵

      The beauty of football is that few incidents are uncontroversial. There is rarely a correct answer or one single version. Clarity is the exception, even with the moviola. Hence, the years and years of debate about the 1966 World Cup final, or the impossibility of deciding if Liverpool’s goal against Chelsea in the 2005 Champions League had crossed the line, or not. The moviola rarely puts an end to debate and usually provokes further discussion. Often, an incident will be replayed umpteen times, and various pundits in the studio will provide an entirely different interpretation of what they have just seen. The other beautiful but frustrating iron rule of calcio is that the referee’s word is final, on the pitch. We cannot go back in time and ‘allow’ a disallowed goal, or award a penalty that was not given. Nonetheless, the authority of referees has been progressively undermined by the replay culture. The mystery and aura surrounding officials began to decline with the first moviola punditry, and took a massive blow with the brave decision by Concetto Lo Bello to admit a mistake in 1972.²⁶ As guest of La Domenica Sportiva Lo Bello patiently watched a ‘penalty’ incident. He then accepted that he had made a mistake calmly and with a smile, adding that he had not had ‘the advantage of the moviola’. Many players and managers now argue for moviola replays during games, a move which would begin to replace referees altogether.

      For referees, the moviola was long seen as an enemy. Many officials hated it, and there were calls for it to be taken off the air on various occasions. After the death of a Lazio fan in 1979, before a Rome derby, the chief referee Giulio Campanati asked for the moviola to be abolished. He argued that slow-motion replays were provoking violence among fans. There is no doubt that the excessive use of moviola ‘evidence’ – now much more sophisticated than in the 1960s – does excite fans and lead to increased hostility towards referees. This is especially true of programmes based almost entirely on the moviola, such as Il processo del lunedì. On one occasion the Italian referees’ association even took the presenter Aldo Biscardi to court. With time, however, referees came to accept – and embrace – the moviola, and many sports programmes now use distinguished ex-referees to comment on replays. Biscardi’s status as the ‘voice of the normal fan’ was shattered by the revelations that emerged during calciopoli in 2006. Luciano Moggi, it seemed, was using the programme for his own ends in order to promote certain referees and discredit others. Phone calls exposed Moggi advising Biscardi on the content of his programme. The moviola was not a neutral instrument, but could be manipulated. Biscardi resigned – only to turn up again soon afterwards on yet another local TV channel. Biscardi had changed his job, but Biscardism remained hegemonic.

      The Great Robberies. Penalties, Disallowed Goals, Sendings-off

      Over the years, specific refereeing decisions have entered football mythology as examples of ‘thievery’. Many of these examples came from the television age, when the moviola was able to show supposed injustices to the fans sitting at home. The three ‘great thefts’ of the 1980s and 1990s all involved Juventus.

      Maurizio Turone’s disallowed ‘goal’. Juventus versus Roma. Turin, 10 May 1981

      Juventus and Roma had fought out the championship all season. By May, Juventus were only one point ahead. Then came the key clash, at home to Roma. Fifteen thousand fans travelled up from the capital for the game. In the seventy-fourth minute, with the game still goalless, a cross came in from the right, a Roma forward flicked it on and Maurizio Turone, their Ligurian sweeper, dived forward to score. The referee immediately disallowed the goal after the linesman signalled for offside. He was wrong, just: Turone had moved forward from an onside position. Photos show Turone wheeling away, arms up in triumph, whilst Dino Zoff moves his finger from side to side to say ‘no’. A whole championship had been decided ‘by centimetres’. Sport, a football newspaper, led with a celebrated front page headline: ‘The goal was good. A linesman saved Juventus: THE MOVIOLA ACCUSES’.

      Diego Perissinotto, now deceased, was the linesman in question while the referee was Paolo Bergamo, who would later become a powerful ‘designator’. Many Roma fans never forgot that moment. After all, they had only ever won one championship in their history. Massimo D’Alema, former Italian prime minister, president of the left-reformist party, the DS, and a Roma fan, wrote that he had never got over what he called ‘the complex of Turone’s goal’. It was alleged that D’Alema ended his friendship with Bergamo – a fellow member of the then Communist Party – over the incident. Much later, journalist Gabriele Romagnoli made a strong case in a brilliant ‘what if’ article that the whole history of Italy had been changed by that disallowed goal. Roma-Juve matches have been lively affairs ever since.

      Fiorentina and Juventus. Last day of the championship. 16 May 1982

      After an emotional season, Fiorentina and Juventus went into the last game level on points. Fiorentina had not won the scudetto since 1969 while Juventus were the title-holders. Most commentators believed that the championship would go to a playoff for only the second time in its history – and a stadium was already lined up for the one-off match.²⁷ Fiorentina fans had celebrated long into the night after drawing level in the penultimate game. Yet, their team had the most difficult task, away to Cagliari, who needed points to avoid relegation. Lowly Catanzaro, a Calabrian team from the deep south of Italy, who were to play Juve at home, were safe.

      Juventus were greeted by 30,000 hostile fans on their arrival in Catanzaro. The home-town ground’s total capacity was only 25,500. Paolo Rossi, the great centre-forward who had just completed a ban after becoming involved in a betting scam in 1980, was pushed around to shouts of ‘crook, crook’ and ‘prison trash’. Only a tiny number of Juve fans made the 28-hour journey from Turin while Fiorentina booked five charter flights to Sardinia, and at least 1,000 fans, including the Mayor, made the long round trip.

      The first controversial incident took place after 35 minutes, with both games deadlocked at 0–0. A Catanzaro forward appeared to be brought down by a Juve defender. Referee Pieri gave nothing. With fifteen СКАЧАТЬ