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Top 10 Calcio bust-ups and fall-outs

August 27, 2011

By Abdel Kader Zeidan

 

With the recent bust-up between Bari players, Forza Italian Football takes a look at 10 of the most memorable and controversial bust-ups and fall-outs over the years.

 

10) Pasquale Bruno vs Referee & Teammates

Pasquale Bruno was a former Italian defender who played for Torino and Juventus in the early 90s amongst other teams. Bruno was infamously known for his aggressive style of play and as such was nicknamed “The Animal”.

While playing for Torino, Bruno was sent off in a league match and began to fight the referee. As his teammates tried to intervene he began to fight his own teammates, landing several punches and refused to leave the field.

Bruno went on to play in Scotland and in England before retiring in 1997. Bruno is also known for giving his opinion on today’s footballers calling them “fairies who only care about earrings, tattoos, nightclubs and shopping”, and said if he wasn’t retired he would“teach Zlatan Ibrahimovic a ‘lesson”.

 

9) Salvatore Masiello vs Alessandro Crescenzi or was it Zdenek Zlamal?

Another incident that grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons on August 24 2011 was when the Bari squad was having a routine lunch and a joke had gotten out of hand, defender Salvatore Masiello threw a plate at teammate Alessandro Crescenzi severely injuring him leaving him with 50 stitches.

However it seems that Crescenzi was not the intended target and had unluckily got in the middle between the intended target Zdenek Zlamal.

Bari has reported Masiello to the Disciplinary Commission in an effort to rescind his contract.

 

8 ) Antonio Cassano vs Nicola Pierpaoli 

 

Back in 2008, Italian bad boy, Antonio Cassano, was witnessing a career revival at Sampdoria after a failed spell at Real Madrid. It seemed that Antonio had put his ‘Cassanate’ days behind him and people were starting to take him seriously again, however Cassano proved that old habits die hard and he was at it again in an appalling attack on referee Nicola Pierpaoli.

In a league match against Torino, Cassano was given a second yellow late in the game for using abusive language towards the referee. Cassano was furious and began an endless barrage of insults at the Pierpaoli until his teammates had to hold him back and push him towards the tunnel. Cassano still managed to take his shirt off and throw it at the referee.

Cassano immediately snapped out of his trance and realized what he had done, he tried to alleviate the situation by apologizing to the referee but it was too late. Cassano was later fined and banned by the disciplinary committee.

 

7) Mario Balotelli vs Juventus Fans

 

In 2009 Juventus were forced to play a home game behind closed doors as a punishment. Juventus fans were accused of chanting racist comments at Mario Balotelli in a home game against the Milan side.

While Juventus executives claimed they would fight against any kind of racism from their fans, the Juventus Ultras (a group of hardcore fans) were quick to claim that the abuse hurled at Balotelli had nothing to do with his skin color.

AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf in an effort to shed light on the situation claimed “You have to stop calling this racism, because it isn’t racist, it’s the same kind of abuse that other, nonblack players get when fans sing about their mothers. The fact is that certain players stand out because of their behavior on the pitch. Balotelli needs to understand that if he continues to behave this way he will continue to elicit similar reactions everywhere he goes.”

Juventus fans would go on to display a banner reading, “Don’t kid yourself Balotelli, you’d annoy us even if you were white.”

However, UEFA didn’t see it in that way and warned Juventus to keep their fans in check before a Europa League fixture between Juventus and Balotelli’s Manchester City.

 

6) Antonio Cassano vs Riccardo Garrone

In late 2010, Cassano was involved in another incident with Sampdoria president Riccardo Garrone ending his harmonious relationship with the club and the city of Genoa.

The incident started when Cassano did not show up to an event being held in his honor which left Garrone furious. Cassano claimed he could not attend as he was taking care of his pregnant wife and even tried apologizing to the president.

Garrone not convinced, rejected Cassano’s apology, this caused the troubled striker to bombard the president with insults. Garrone would go on to claim “Cassano used words that were too harsh and what he did was too serious”.

As a result, Garrone sought the Italian Federation in an effort to rescing Cassano’s contract with Sampdoria. Cassano would appear in public begging for forgiveness, proclaiming his love for the club and the people of Genoa.

His appeals would fall upon deaf ears and he was sold to AC Milan for an undisclosed fee. Garrone convincing himself he did the right thing, claimed “my great regret is that he was happy (at Sampdoria). Last night I walked the streets of Genia and not a single Sampdoria fan asked me to make peace with Cassano.”

A Cassano-less Sampdoria witnessed a string of poor results and would go on to be relegated at the end of the season.

 

5) Frank Rijkaard vs Franco Baresi

A story not often spoken about across the peninsula and so discrete that some question its legitimacy, but folklore has it that in the early 90s AC Milan midfield legend Frank Rijkaard was involved in an affair with Maura Lari, the wife of teammate Franco Baresi, leaving her pregnant with Rijkaard’s child.

Maura Lari gave birth to a baby that was too dark-skinned not to arouse gossip. Shortly afterwards, Rijkaard was sold to Ajax fueling rumors of a fallout between the Dutch midfielder and the Italian defender.

 

4) Davide Marchini vs Pasquale Foggia

In December 2007 Cagliari teammates Marchini and Foggia were involved in a training scuffle, nothing out of the ordinary. After the two midfielders were held back from each other, Foggia’s last words to Marchini were “You will see what will happen on Monday”.

Come the following Monday, Marchini and then teammate Robert Aquafresca were having a quiet lunch in a Cagliari restaurant when Foggia entered and approached Marchini asking if he could have a seat to discuss their issues. Marchini refused this request and Foggia excused himself.

Shortly afterwards a man, apparently a friend of Foggia’s, approached Marchini and asked him why he had a fought with Foggia before unleashing a violent punch to Marchini’s nose. What ensued was Marchini running out to the street with the attacker following him while continuously beating him with the chair he was just sitting on.

Marchini was treated for cuts on his hand in a nearby hospital. Strangely, Marchini was suspended by his club and was sold off to Triestina.

3) Marco Materazzi vs Mario Balotelli

One of the most controversial moments in Italian football was when Italian bad boy Mario Balotelli took of his Inter Milan jersey, threw it to the ground and gave a middle finger salute to the Inter fans. This happened after the final whistle of Inter’s 3-1 victory over Barcelona in the first leg of the 2010 Champion’s League Semi-Final.

The Inter fans did not take kindly to the gesture and commenced to jeer the striker. Teammate Marco Materazzi took matters into his own hands and berated Mario as the two entered the tunnel.

Ex-teammate Zlatan Ibrahimovic, then playing for Barcelona, witnessed the barrage of screams dealt by the Italian defender. Zlatan spoke to Rai Sports and said “I saw that Materazzi was attacking him in the tunnel and I’ve never seen anything like it. If I were him, I’d have left Mario alone, but Materazzi was attacking him and I was stunned. If Materazzi had attacked me like that, I would’ve decked him in a second!”

After the incident, it was obvious that Balotelli’s days at Inter were numbered and he was soon sold to Manchester City. As a going away present, Balotelli gifted Materazzi an autographed iPad in a sign of goodwill.

Materazzi would later add “Mario got a slap and shoe in the face. But when he had his operation, I was in the hospital at midnight to keep him company and get snacks from the machine”.

 

2) Andrea Agnelli vs Massimo Moratti

 

In perhaps what has been the most controversial topic in Italian football history, Caliciopoli has taken the animosity between Juventus and Inter Milan to unprecedented heights.

In 2006 Juventus were accused of being the main protagonists in a match fixing scandal that shook Italian football. Juventus were stripped of two Scudetto titles, were demoted to Serie B and watched as Inter Milan was awarded the 2006 Scudetto.

Ever since there have been accusations by Juventus executives, ex-executvies, fans and even journalists that the entire scandal was purposely mismanaged to punish Juventus and reward Inter Milan. The period that followed Calciopoli saw Inter Milan dominate Italian football while Juventus looked like a shadow of the club it once was.

In 2010 Juventus appointed a new president with a familiar name to the Juventus tifosi, Andrea Agnelli. Andrea promised the fans that he would fight appeal the allegations made against Juventus several years before. In June 2011, chief investigator Stefano Palazzi released a report accusing Inter Milan of violating Article 6 of the Sporting Code (Sporting Fraud), a punishment worthy of immediate relegation. Because of the statute of limitations of two years on the activities, Inter Milan were not required to face charges in a court of law.

What ensued was a war of words between Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and Inter president Massimo Moratti. At one point Agnelli stated that “We won 29 Scudetti, Milan 18, we don’t know about Inter…”

Agnelli would also claim that Juventus would take any measure available to overturn the sentences passed on. Moratti responded by saying, “I hope he (Agnelli) goes on holiday soon so he can relax.”

Although Andrea did not respond to the specific comment, his cousin and head of Fiat John Elkann responded by saying, “We’re happy to receive this advice from an older person, who with his wisdom recommends us to go on holiday, but holidays at Juve are prescribed. We know that there’s work to do – a lot of it – and that is our priority,”

One thing we know for sure is that we haven’t heard the end of Calciopoli and this author believes it won’t be a while before we do.

 

1) Roberto Baggio vs Marcello Lippi

When one looks back at the extraordinary career of perhaps the finest ever Italian footballer, Roberto Baggio, one cannot help to think he could have achieved even greater heights. There were several factors to why Il Divin Codino did not achieve even bigger success but one reason that stands out the most is his bitter relationship with Marcello Lippi.

Baggio played for Juventus until 1995, the year when Marcello Lippi first arrived at Juventus. He would play only one season under Lippi as he was deemed surplus as a young Alessandro Del Piero was an up and coming star.  He was sold to AC Milan where he would spend two seasons at the San Siro before transferring to Bologna.

In his second spell under Lippi at Inter Milan, it was then that their relationship took a turn for the worse. No one knows the exact reason why but Baggio’s take on it was that Lippi was jealous of the talented striker. He would go on to write in his autobiography that“The Lippi that I had at Inter declared war on me, without stopping for a minute, without any plausible motivation, without any of it having sense, an understandable logic. The problem was that even when I didn’t play, I was always on people’s lips whereas Lippi, try as he might, just couldn’t make people like him and he couldn’t accept all this. He wanted to destroy me, to annihilate me, but he didn’t succeed.”

Because of his bad relationship with Lippi he felt that he would have to move on and signed for minnows Brescia. Baggio’s time at Inter was the last time he played for one of the top Italian clubs and although he had some excellent performances for Brescia, he never truly recovered as he also saw his playing days with the national team come to an end.

 

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Tags: AC Milan, Alessandro Crescenzi, Andrea Agnelli, Antonio Cassano, Bari, Bologna, Brescia, Cagliari, Calciopoli, Clarence Seedorf,Davide Marchini, Franco Baresi, Frank Rijkaard, Inter Milan, Juventus, Marcello Lippi, Marco Materazzi, Mario Balotelli, Massimo Moratti, Pasquale Bruno, Pasquale Foggia, Riccardo Garrone, Roberto Baggio, Salvatore Masiello, Sampdoria, Torino, Zdenek Zlamal,Zlatan Ibrahimovic