Athletic Events 2026-
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Next Sunday, August the 23rd, we start our next
battle for something good in this year's Serie A
from Frosinone, about one hour's drive from the
Capital. The local team is back from a two-year
spell in Serie B, as are Venezia and Monza, but
in their case, having spent only one year there.
On the other end, Cremonese, Hellas Verona and
Pisa are now in Serie B. Cremonese and Pisa fell
just after a short one year's presence, but Verona
had been in Serie A for 7 seasons and will be
missed (until they manage to return).
FORZA JUVE!!

It is very hard for me to believe this and my
incredulity is partially based on the almost
certain knowledge that, in Italy, the amount
of money either wasted or spent inappropri-
ately in the annual budgets must be colossal
in comparison to what is being asked for this
extremely Noble Cause. I do ask the Italian
Senate and the Italian Parliament to DO THE
RIGHT THING and pass the Bove Law and,
if this fails, I ask the Italian Professional
Football Players and ex-Players of Serie A,
some of whom have made during their te-
nures there large fortunes, to pull together
the necessary meager (in comparison to
the value of the goal) resources needed for
funding and ensuring passage of the Law.


Με συγκίνησε πάρα πολύ σήμερα η ανάρτηση της
Μαρίνας Χατζηκώστα (όπως και χθες της Λίζας Ιτόγια)
και η αλήθεια είναι ότι μας έχουν κουράσει (για να μην
πω εξουθενώσει) αυτές οι ανιμετωπίσεις και οι συμπε-
ριφορές και ούτε καν μπορώ να φανταστώ τον αντί-
χτυπο και τις επιπτώσεις που έχουν στα παιδιά που
τις αντιμετωπίζουν καθημερινά και άμεσα. Ξέρω ότι
μάλλον δεν ωφελεί και δε βοηθάει να επαναλαμβά-
νουμε πράγματα που συμπολίτες μας αρνούνται να
καταλάβουν και να αποδεχτούν, όπως, π.χ., ότι αυτό
που πολλοί θα αποκαλούσαν "έλληνας" ή "κύπριος"
(με βάση βιολογικά χαρακτηριστικά) είναι ένας μύθος
που συντηρείται από συμφέροντα, καθώς από την
περιοχή μας έχουν περάσει και αναμιχθεί χίλιες δυο
διαφορετικές φυλές και εθνότητες. Αλλά και αυτό εάν
δυσκολεύεται να αποδεχτεί κανείς ας σκεφτεί πόσο
απαράδεκτο είναι πώς συμπεριφερόμαστε σε άλλους
στην καθημερινή μας ζωή (όταν μας φαίνονται δια-
φορετικοί) και πώς τους θαυμάζουμε και τους θεο-
ποιούμε αργότερα, όταν μας φαίνονται πετυχημέ-
νοι και, κατά προτίμηση, πλούσιοι (όπως, π.χ., ο
Γιάννης), ενώ όλοι (ελπίζω) κατανοούμε ότι η πραγ-
ματική αξία ενός ατόμου δεν έχει να κάνει ούτε με
τη φήμη του ούτε με την περιουσία του, αλλά, όπως
λέει και η Μαρίνα, με τα αποτελέσματα και την Αν-
θρωπιά του. Και ας αναλογιστούν, εν τέλει, εάν με
βάση αυτές τις βλακείες και σαχλαμάρες που ακού-
με δυστυχώς καθημερινά, εάν, ο μη γένοιτο, βρί-
σκονταν στην εντατική και χρειάζονταν μετάγγιση
επειγόντως, θα αρνούνταν αίμα από κάποιον δότη
επειδή δε θα ήταν αίμα "ελληνικό" (ή αίμα "κυπρι-
ακό" στην προκειμένη περίπτωση) ή θα ευχαρι-
στούσαν οποιονδήποτε Άνθρωπο είχε την Ανθρω-
πια, την Αλληλεγύη και τη Γενναιοδωρία να προσ-
φέρει Ζωή σε συνανθρώπους του. Μας έχουν πια
κουράσει αυτά και ξέρω ότι δε θα αλλάξουν εύκολα.
Αλλά ας σκεφτόμαστε λίγο περισσότερο πριν λέμε
και κάνουμε ανοησίες με σοβαρές επιπτώσεις και
συνέπειες γιατί, εάν μη τι άλλο, ας καταλάβουμε,
τουλάχιστον, ότι, ακόμα και την ψευδαίσθηση να
έχουμε ότι εμάς δε θα μας επηρεάσουν όταν επη-
ρεαζουν άλλους συμπολίτες μας αρνητικά, όταν
υπονομεύουμε την αρμονία και συνοχή των κοι-
νωνιών μας, όλοι μαζί υποφέρουμε τις συνέπειες
και ποτέ δεν αφήνουμε τους εαυτούς μας αμέτο-
χους και ακέραιους.
 

They are shameless and totally out of control.
After all they've done throughout at least the
last two decades and the way they have been
behaving, they have the audacity to scorn and
to criticize? Get your act together, pack your
stuff and beat it. RIGHT NOW. Associations,
IMPLODE "FIFA" NOW!
NO CRIMINALS AND OUTSIDE INTERESTS
SHOULD EVER BE ALLOWED IN THE SPORT.


A word of caution and encouragement for
Michele, our Keeper. It was noticeable last
season (and before) and I noticed it again
today in the first goal of the friendly against
Inter. When you dive on the left, you need
to avoid using your left arm as a crutch (to
soften your fall) and to try instead to stretch
it fully so that your hands' reach is extended.
This is a weakness for many keepers, but
you can significantly and quickly improve
on this by practicing a bit and by making
sure that your eyes are kept firm on the
incoming ball. Since you are already a very
good keeper, if you work and become better
in some such details that need some work,
you can become an extraordinary keeper!
Go for it! You need it and we need it!


One disappointment after another. One gets
reminded of the president's statement before
his first election that people liked him so much
and they were so loyal that, even if he shot
someone in plain daylight in the middle of
Fifth Avenue he wouldn't lose any votes.
Except that, here, it is neither liking nor any
kind of loyalty, but pure greed and corruption
and the fact that gangsters understand that
their survival depends on oiling well the ma-
chine under them, allowing enough to trickle,
or stay, down so that people feel that, even if
subjugated and having to do things they do
not like, they will have trouble having it as
profitable and as easily elsewhere, so they
cling tooth and nail, even when they see in
front of their eyes that things are turning
sour and that the whole edifice is coming
down with a thud. UEFA and, most impor-
tantly NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS, DO NOT
ALLOW THINGS TO CONTINUE AS USUAL!
WITHDRAW MEMBERSHIP WITH IMMEDIATE
EFFECT AND CREATE ALTERNATIVE STRU-
CTURE(S) WITH A CONSTITUTION AND
RULES THAT WILL NEVER ALLOW THIS
KIND OF POWER IN ONE AND THE EX-
PLOITATION OF THE SPORT BY VULTURES
AND PARASITES WHO CARE FOR ONE
THING ONLY AND THAT IS NOT FOOTBALL.
Do not simply remain in meaningless rhetoric,
as you have done so many times in the past,
thus, having become accomplices to this
decline, these unacceptable developments
and this deplorable situation.


This thirteenth hour, I ask all of you at that meeting
to do, for once, the right thing for the sake of trans-
parency, before you give him the boot. Ask about an
honest accounting of his expenses during WC2026.
How much did he spend on planes, lodging, meals,
gifts etc., on anything that he did not pay out of his
designated salary and the "outfit" had to dish out.
Then give us a detailed account and tell us how it
compares, as a percentage of compensation, to the
expenses of other CEOs as a whole and to CEOs
of "non-for-profit"s, in particular. Let us judge
whether what he claims about the "outfit"'s resou-
rces being directed towards grassroots advances
and towards strengthening the sport bears any
truth and has any connection with reality and the
facts. Do not get out of this meeting without letting
him know very clearly and unequivocally that you
now know what type of game he was playing, that
you do not appreciate his using you as accompli-
ces in shady deals and strategies and as useful
idiots, and let him know that the entire footballing
community knows about his shamelessness, his
ruthlessness and exactly what he was trying to
do and his motives, and to stop using Football
vainly and as a pretext for personal improprieties.
Finally, keep in mind, from now on, that "fifa", or
any other organization which replaces it and
aspires to represent Football, must refrain from
having a "president", but be governed collectively
by a council of true representatives, and must
accept the reality that all contracts (hiring agree-
ments, agreements with sponsors, broadcast
deals, everything of any legal character) must
be openly negotiated, published in its website
and be open for scrutiny and debate. No decision
should be taken in the shade and behind closed
doors. Anything negotiated, executed or signed
without being published should be considered, by
its "constitution", null and void and, by default, of
a criminal character. Repeating the same mistake
is not something that anyone should be willing
to submit to and these are the minimal steps
required to start rebuilding an iota of trust.


We cannot receive counseling and opinions any
longer by individuals who spent time in the "court"
of an absolute monarch whose tenure has proved
to be self-serving and disastrous. Any person who
has accepted positions and money from the boss
of bosses under cover of "wisdom" but, in reality,
to keep silent because in opposition their opinion
would have counted, should be ashamed, should
ask forgiveness, should resign and should not
have the shamelessness to appear in public.
I do not remember hearing once any of those
around the boss of bosses criticize the structure
of "fifa"'s decision making processes or the fact
that a person had carte blanche to manipulate,
give and receive gifts and bribes, decide on
behalf of everybody else and put egoism and
personal enrichment above everything else un-
checked and so provocatively and unrestrained.
By going where the wind blows and criticize after
the fact, when the person you served and you
profited from, despite his record, has already
become a pariah and your association with that
person a liability, makes you despicable and la-
mentable and shows your true character. The
only other place where such attitudes work is
the criminal world, where the bosses and capos
very easily change allegiances to survive when
the boss of bosses changes (one way or another,
but, very often, one way). I would advise him and
anyone in his position to disappear under the
radar and start hiding from public view, because
the anger you have caused with your support for
someone so loathable and so repulsive, who has
caused so much harm for profit, cannot be easily
appeased nor will it be easily forgotten.


Now that UEFA and the National Associations have
woken up from a long stupor that allowed criminals
to ravage Football and act unrestrained and unchecked
in their name but on behalf of other interests, and they
at last realized the tremendous power they wield and
that can be used as a collective Force for Good, it is
time to turn a page. But alertness and vigilance is a
must and I hope this saga, and the close escape from
the usurpation of the Sport by what proved to be "bad"
actors, provides a lesson to learn from and a warning
to be careful and to demand control and accountability,
if one wishes to remain a member of a questionable
and shady outfit (my view is that this has happened
one too many times for anyone to feel comfortable
and to have confidence in remaining a member).
And, as slowly, the various domestic leagues for the
2026-2027 season are about to kick off, let us leave
this disaster behind, with the hope that it will not re-
peat itself, and focus on the Most Beautiful Club of
the Most Fascinating League of the Most Beautiful
Sport on the Globe.