The Juventus plea bargain that resulted in the lifting of the sporting sanctions and the resolution of the salary case, has provoked an avalanche of reactions. The discourse seems to be following certain ‘cultural’ trends that weren’t born these days and have been longstanding. Few seem to have changed their opinions.
The ‘neutral’ group, consisting of figures who essentially care about the welfare of soccer and do not necessarily support Juve, have people like Giuseppe Pastore. He expressed that the primary concern was the settlement. “The fact that Juventus has overcome the second trial significantly relieved, by accepting to draw a line over the past 5 disastrous years of Agnelli management. Both cases call for serious reflection on sports justice,” Pastore said.
Paolo Paganini from Rai raised two questions: “With regards to capital gains, did Juventus do them all alone?” and “What about all the catastrophes announced certainly for months by the Nobel law?” Riccardo Cucchi gives a synopsis of the situation: “Let’s be honest, those who wanted relegation are disappointed. Those who would have liked Juventus not to have any penalty are also disappointed. What I think is that it will take an effort to “define” the “wrongdoing” of capital gain, if it can be defined.”
Journalists who are declared fans form the ‘anti’ group, with Paolo Ziliani being at the helm. Many consider him among the losers of this affair, given that he had prophesied a much different fate for Juventus. “The verdict that counts is Verona and Spezia are safe and Juve in Serie B. It will be a useless playoff scheduled between the last two third-last: they will stay in A and in Serie B will end Juventus which on 15 June will be sanctioned for 4 serious, distinct and proven wrongs,” Ziliani stated. He described the affair as the “Scandal of Scandals”.
On a different note, Tancredi Palmeri wrote that Juventus had achieved “the most extraordinary sporting success in 125 years of history. And I’m not being ironic or derisive.” He added that Francesco Calvo was the runner up to Giampiero Boniperti as the executive who has achieved the most concrete results for Juventus in its history.
The ‘pro’ group involves Massimo Zampini who has closely covered every detail of the case with Juventibus. For him, there are three fundamental points: “1) Juve punished like no one before for capital gains of real players 2) the only one punished for capital gains without counterpart and partnership without partner 3) the usual ones who feared the B (and also read them!) will continue their tragicomic campaigns of disinformation.” Luca Gramellini believe that the issue doesn’t end here: “After the settlement accepted by TFN, for Gravina it is the victory of Italian football, for me it is the defeat of sports justice and of Juventus forced to bow to the abuse of power carried out against it. Now we’ll see who else will pay. FIGC to be relaunched.”. Will there be more episodes, or not?