Читать книгу Calcio: A History of Italian Football - John Foot - Страница 50

The third occasion is far more recent, and was also seen by millions watching on Channel 4 in the UK. It was 1998, and this time Juventus-Inter was the key match: the game that would decide the championship. After 24 minutes of the second half Juventus were 1–0 up when Ronaldo flicked the ball away from defender Iuliano, and was blatantly checked in the area. Referee Piero Ceccarini turned down the Brazilian’s appeals, and almost immediately afterwards awarded a spot kick to Juve at the other end. The Inter players went wild, chasing after the official while their manager, mild-mannered Gigi Simoni, screamed ‘you should be ashamed’ at the referee, and was sent off. Juve missed their penalty, but won the game and went on to take the championship. The Ronaldo controversy dominated the national press for days, and led to debates in Parliament. Amongst Inter fans (a huge club without a championship victory since 1989) the whole season became known as that of the grande ruberia – ‘the big thievery’.

Three investigative journalists wrote a whole book based around this game, called Clean Feet – a play on the 1992–3 anti-corruption investigations which had been dubbed Clean Hands. The subtitle of the book was ‘Everything you have always wanted to know about the most beautiful game in the world, and which nobody has ever told you’. The cover depicted the ‘non-foul’ on Ronaldo that had occupied Italian minds for weeks.²⁹