Home
For all the fans of the Englsih Channel 4 coverage...NOSTALGIA
James is on holiday for the next fortnight, but here are his last entry.
Friday July 28, 2006
So last week’s prediction that the season would kick-off late proved bang on. It was hardly a long shot, given that between them Serie A and B have had delayed starts in each of the last three years, but with a finish date at the end of May 2007 that’s a pretty crowded season we’re looking at.
Of course for some clubs the football’s already begun. Chievo and Milan are facing Champions League preliminaries this midweek. Milan may be old hands at this sort of thing, but it’s quite a sight to see tiny Chievo – a club from a minuscule ‘frazione’ of Verona (pop: 4,500), for whom reaching Serie A alone was reckoned a miracle – at the doors of club football’s biggest event. Just six years ago fans of their far bigger neighbours Verona were taunting them that donkeys would fly before Chievo could face them in Serie A (hence the nickname), but almost ever since then it’s been Verona who’ve been stumbling along in the Second Division while Chievo continue to climb.
Boy, do they deserve it. Since their arrival in the top flight in 2001 Chievo have represented everything good about the Italian game. Not only do they keep their books balanced on a tiny budget, but they’ve often played some exhilarating football. Remember their first year up, when they gave all the big clubs a shock and climbed right up to the top positions? Remember too those epic battles with Juventus, where only some bizarre decisions prevented the new boys from claiming the biggest scalp of all? Looking back on those games in the light of this summer’s revelations, it’s hard not to feel Chievo would have every right be among those complaining the loudest right now. Instead they’ve maintained their usual dignified silence.
That’s the way of this club. Their Harry Potter-esque President Luca Campedelli has always ensured Chievo behave as sportingly as possible. Campedelli is a committed anglophile, with a self–effacing manner not often found in the Italian game – it’s no coincidence that he’s close friends with Inter’s Massimo Moratti. For him, football is only a game (baking cakes is his real work) and as a result Chievo’s record has been impeccable. Rarely do they question the referee, or dismiss a manager, or generally behave like an Italian side.
Now comes their reward, perhaps. Should their preliminary with Levski Sofia go well, the Flying Donkeys will be up there in the Champions League – and while their chances of challenging for honours look slimmer than Mrs Beckham that’d still be a great advert for the good in the Italian game. I’m away for the next fortnight, so let’s hope that they’ve got one foot in Europe’s premier club competition by the time I return…
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
