come on guys let's be sensible... that was a dive. no arguments about that. alex shouldn't have done that and the penalty shouldn't have been given... but that's it.
as dafrenz pointed out, we can't scream conspiracy every time a top club gets away with a questionable call from the ref.... refs are humans and make mistakes, like anyone else..... and italian refs make the same mistakes spanish and english do..... yet i don't see spanish and english fans questioning the whole tournament for a wrong call.
some might say they didn't face a scandal like calciopoli.....and that's true, but jeez guys, serie a moved on..... and so should we!
none of the people involved in that scandal is still here.... lanese (former italian ref's association presindent)? burned. pairetto and bergano (those 2 corrupted bastards who used to "select" the refs for the matches)? burned. carraro (former federcalcio president)? burned. moggi and giraudo? fired and banned from the federation. the refs personally involved in the fixed matches? all burned and banned...
they're all gone. now we have a new federcalcio president (abete), a new generation of referees (who are acutally getting better and better every season), a new "referees boss", collina, who is a man whose morality is unquestionable.
serie a has changed. so let's just stop looking for "masters of puppets" everywhere and let's face the unquestionable truth: ref's mistakes are part of the game (i wouldn't say the same about diving though, and i certainly wouldn't say alessandro is not to blame).
no one is trying to push juventus to the 4th place....palermo too is a contender for the 4th place.... and palermo too was given a non existant penalty saturday against roma (there was a foul on pastore, but it was clearely outside the box)....so what? is someone trying to push palermo too?! well if that's the case i guess this master of puppets should make up his mind.... who's got to get that 4th place? palermo or juve....coz "helping" 2 contenders to get the same prize isn't really a smart call.
what's really disturbing in this situation is del piero's act though. this is his second diving in just a few weeks..... now i can understand how frustrating it must be to face such a bad period, and i also can understand a normal player would get to the point to do anything to get his team the 3 points, even diving.
but alessandro is not a normal player....... that's just not him. so i really hope alessandro will realise that and be back to his real self as soon as possible...... because it takes just a few months of bad attitude to destroy the great fair player reputation he built for himself over an entire carreer.
and i also have to say rfu is probably right. if balotelli would have done the same, he would have got much more stick than that.
long story short...
refs always make mistakes and this shouldn't really raise any eyebrows.
del piero dived, that's pretty much unquestionable. and he should be punished for that. the fact that this is not something he's used to doesn't mean he can get away with it when he dives.
and for god sake no one is trying to help juve to reach the 4th place. the truth is u guys tend to notice only the questionable calls refs make during the top clubs matches and this alters your perception....... infact i'm pretty sure most of u didn't notice that non existent penalty palermo was given sathurday.
well let me put it like this.
on one side we have delio rossi. right until last season he was considered as one of the best coaches in serie a. he did an amazing job at lazio, built a fantastic team and had it playing some very beautiful football..... and he did exactly the same at lecce, before signing for lazio. then half way through last season, something happened, and lazio couldn't deliver anymore (funnily lazio's downfall begun right when the pandev\ledesma incident broke up..... u think that's a coincidence?).
people blamed rossi for lazio's bad results (as if a good manager could all of a sudden turn into a poor manager), and rossi left the job. he signed for palermo, and voilà, the good old rossi is back. palermo is delivering and we're also playing some pretty good football..... as soon as he left lazio, rossi suddenly turned back to his previous standards......
on the other side there is ballardini. a coach who has been labelled from Sacchi as one of the most promising coaches of this new generation. he has done an outstanding job in cagliari (to be fair, half of the credit for this current nice allegri's cagliari should go to ballardini). then he moved to palermo and in 2 months he had us playing the best football i have ever seen palermo playing in my life...... if only he would have done what he did in cagliari and palermo for a more "glamourous" club (say, genoa, fiorentina or napoli) he would have been considered almost on the same standards of the likes of blanc, gasperini and prandelli right now.
this summer he moved to lazio and, just like rossi before him, all of a sudden, he becomes a "poor manager".....
honestly i'd say it's pretty obvious that lazio's problems have nothing to do with the coaching guidance. don't u think?