Balotelli is indefensible, but this time the Verona fans have to do self-criticism. Even if nothing will change

1. The Verona fans have the worst reputation in the world and do not deserve it altogether. I must say from direct experience that, lately, the hooliganite rate of supporter dell 'Hellas it got worse. The original Gialloblu Brigades were other stuff. They didn't hide thugs professional and had a great sense of humor, let's call it capacity of provocation that other fans didn't have. Milan, Juventus, Inter and Napoli were and are in comparison much more serious supporters and with a propensity to hooliganism and to delinquency certainly not inferior to that of the Veronese. But anyway, for a long time the Verona fans are indicated as being among the most violent, the most racist, etc. It is so, and a little self-criticism would do well to have it.

2. Balotelli is indefensible. Raiola (his multi-billion dollar attorney) may be upset, but it is clear that the young man has spent half his footballing life making a bad vaccination of an overpaid professional (destroying cars, throwing his team's shirt to the ground, fighting with colleagues and coaches) and the other half trying to put a piece to a fame by now indelible.

That the five minutes came and exaggerated the size of the offenses, which were unacceptable but limited, is enough likely, and this, as has been said, does not reduce the gravity of the facts by anything. In this case, collective responsibilities should apply. Even the innocent are involved, if they are conspiratorial or worse tolerant, and the supporters of all the more than racist squares are certainly conspiratorial. But this principle should be applied everywhere, not only in Verona (and instead we know how things are going).

3. Verona in recent years has made a bad reputation throughout Italy, but did not, nor does anything to take it off. Verona is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but from the Bangkok of Italy, to Ludwig, in the case of Marseille and company singing, no one has ever felt the need to be noticed even for something positive. All to deny (sometimes with reason), to say that it is others who are evil and malicious, who do not understand. The city for at least twenty years, with the pain of those who love it, has fallen into a drowsiness of civil, cultural and economic activities that certainly do not justify the bad reputation, but they evidently constitute the presupposition, the bases on which to build hairy lies that continue to circulate.

In Newsroom, in a famous scene it is said that "the first step in the solution of a problem is to recognize its existence", but this is not wanted in Verona. Woe to denounce something that is wrong (and now things are many): one is accused of attack on Verona.

4. Football is still and unfortunately a sport that is not too credible on the level of respect criminal and civil laws, ethical and civil practices. Too many characters borderline, while excluding the fans, they occupy important places in professional football: I think of certain presidents inside and outside the courtrooms, certain multicoloured managers who continue to pontificate, to certain prosecutors, to certain arbitrators shame of the arbitration class.

The money that circulates in football has made it, today more than once, a sport not to be recommended to those who think they can earn Paradise in this life. The violence that still circulates in all stages is a function of widespread permissiveness towards certain behaviors at the limit of legality or beyond, and the high rate of evildoers who always find hospitality in the folds of Italian football. Fans who blackmail companies, doping inestirpabile, bets that emerge frequently.

Cleaning up football starting with the fans and stadiums is a nonsense, as well as useless work. At this football it is very convenient to emphasize racist episodes in order to leave all the rest in this, let's not forget it. So Balotelli and Verona, unfortunately, are the right thing in the right place. At the moment with little hope that neither one nor the other can do something serious to prevent certain scenes from happening again.

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Peter Gomez