Journalist Franco Ordine is worried about how AC Milan and Juventus are being left behind by Inter on league affairs.
After failing to qualify for a third straight World Cup, it became apparent that heads would have to roll within the Italian federation. Gabriele Gravina is no longer the president, so now new leadership is needed, and it seems that Giovanni Malago is the prime candidate.
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One of the concerns about this is that he is very much the chosen man of Inter president Beppe Marotta. Milan tried to propose Adriano Galliani as a rival before he declared himself out, before eventually deciding to give their support to Malago.
‘Inter will live off the proceeds for 4, 5 or 10 years’
Ordine – who is a writer and columnist for various outlets – spoke to Number 1 Podcast about the management of Italy’s top clubs, expressing concern about Inter’s influence. MilanNews relayed his words.
“Ausilio is the best sporting director around, Marotta is the most knowledgeable, attentive, and focused of all the directors around, and it’s clear to see,” he said.
“A political crisis in football is brewing, and there’s only one president who takes the initiative, goes to Rome, and talks to Giorgetti to prevent politics from taking over football. He talks to Malagò and suggests he take the field and take on the presidency of the Federation.
“This is doing their job very well. Milan and Juve were first led around by Marotta. They attempted a distraction manoeuvre, objectively amateurish, by suggesting Galliani run against Malagò. Having realized it was a misguided and ill-timed battle, they joined Malagò.
“This shows that as long as there is this operational distance between Marotta and his competitors, Inter will live off the proceeds for 4, 5 or 10 years.”
I don’t understand. Please educate me how this is bad for Milan and good for inter. What proceeds are they going to live off?
Ordine is saying that because Malago is a Marotta pick, that naturally Malago would be more friendly to Marotta and the club that he backs, just like how Gravina was also an Inter Supporter, same as Rocchi the lead of the referees. With all the most influential people in Italian football all supporting Inter, other teams like Milan and Juve risk being treated unfairly.
I mean, look at the difference of how Milan fans are being banned from going to away games, whilst Inter fans, despite throwing firecrackers on the pitch, are only banned for just 3 away matches, and that even excluded the Derby.
Political and sporting-wise, Inter have had the advantage since Marotta joined them.
The administration allowed them to register for Serie A for the past 5 seasons, despite the fact that their former owner Zhang and Sunning were financially unstable. Given their massive debts and everything, they shouldn’t have even been allowed to register for Serie A for the last few seasons before Oaktree took over, much less compete and win them.
This is all due to the power that having all the top people in the league supporting your club can produce.