“For more than four years I have been carrying a pain inside me. And this pain on Thursday, with the defeat of Italy against Macedonia, has returned as intense as it was four years ago. In all this time I have reflected a lot and talked little. I listened , however. Four years ago I was stoned. ” It is the monologue of the former Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura who at ‘Le Iene’, broadcast this evening, comments on Italy’s failure to qualify for the next World Cup. The coach chooses the broadcast of Italia 1 to remove a few pebbles from his shoe, highlighting the differences in treatment that the media have had towards him, after the elimination against Sweden in 2017, compared to Roberto Mancini. “I became the black man, we went from ‘Ventura is a football teacher’ to ‘Ventura eats children’; the one who did not resign after the defeat against Sweden because he wanted to steal a salary”.
“I have always recognized – adds the former coach – my guilt for that exclusion, but there were also other responsibilities.
That’s what the press is saying today in one voice to defend the coach. And it is true. It is not a defeat of the team, but a system problem. And I agree. I think it’s the same system as four years ago, which the victory in the European Championship only masked. A late system, without vision, which led us to go out in the first round at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. And which requires us to think about these defeats that seem to arrive undeservedly, suddenly, but which have deeper roots. I read that the stadiums are dilapidated, that the accounts do not add up, that in Italy no more champions are born, that the few Italians who play in the top clubs have no international experience, and that in nurseries they prefer to invest in foreigners.
Here: these problems existed even four years ago and my defeat, unfortunately, did not change anything. Four years ago, for everyone, it was just my fault, and I stepped aside. Today – concludes Ventura – instead it is clear to everyone that the fault lies with the system. And as an Italian and a fan of Italy, I’m happy that Mancini stays. But now let’s change the system. “
Source: Ansa
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