Forza, Viola
The notion that sport and politics should never mix is a curious, and also deeply political, one. Sport, after all, is just the waging of international politics by other means. Ask the East Germans.
Rarely has the mix been quite as fruity as this weekend’s end to the Italian football season, with all eyes on the race for the Serie A title. Most of those eyes, admittedly, will be on whether Internazionale blow a seemingly unassailable lead and hand the prize to Roma. Mine, though, will be watching politics and sport get it on in the battle for 4th spot, and an all-important qualifying place for next season’s Champions League.
In the red-and-black corner are AC Milan, the European aristocrats who were founded by expatriate Brits, the team of Kaka and Pato, and last year the spawniest European champions since, erm, we last won it. In the purple corner, representing Italy’s bucolic heart, are ACF Fiorentina, La Viola, from the city of Dante and Botticelli, supported by some of world football’s craziest fans. They’re a team, more importantly, that hail from (still) Red Tuscany, a nickname the region didn’t get from it’s wines. The city’s mayor is a former Communist.
It’s Milan, the squad of (ahem) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Mediaset empire, who must win at home to Udinese and keep their fingers crossed. Against Florence, with a 2-point advantage, who need to take something from a trip to Torino.
There are reasons aplenty for anyone, left or right, to want to push pies of gloat into Berlusconi’s pudgy face (excepting those too ignorant to know any better). Among them, however, isn’t the rumour that was flying round Florence last week: Mediaset bought the Napoli president’s latest screenplay in return for his team rolling over against Milan. Napoli won 3-1.
Failure to qualify could cost AC Milan, and Berlusconi personally, a delicious €25 million or more. With the added bonus that his smug face won’t be on ITV quite so often next season. And that, even for the football unbelievers among you, has to be something worth cheering.
