“Faced with the defeat against Switzerland I thought I was in an episode of “Jokes aside”. Giovanni Malagò, president of the Coni, speaks to the Corriere della Sera after the elimination of the Azzurri at the Europeans.
“I have witnessed defeats, of course. In individual sports it can happen that the tennis player or swimmer on duty on the day of the competition, due to a physical or mental problem, has a terrible performance. But in a team sport, with the possibility of making five substitutions out of eleven, the scene seemed unbelievable to me: the players on the pitch conveyed a feeling of frustration and humiliation. It seemed like they didn’t even notice, because usually if you’re in trouble you get carried away by the competitive spirit, but they were really amorphous. They never gave the impression of putting their heart and soul into it”.
“Spalletti? He was honest in admitting that he made a mistake and that the job of a selector is different from that of a coach – he continues Malago -. What a pity: after the goal of Zaccagni to Croatia in the 98th minute and that highway in the good part of the scoreboard seemed like we were in the best possible situation”.
The result of the Azzurri comes in a summer in which athletics dominates the Europeans and the comparison is jarring. “It doesn’t help – says the IOC president – to see young people who earn a few thousand euros triumph while athletes who are successful, wealthy, popular, do not have the right attitudes. In fact, they don’t even feel the need to show them off.”
