World news – Serie A: Italy’s blasphemy law kills another footballer, this time Juventus legend Gianluigi Buffon – Sports News, Firstpost

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Blasphemy is hardly new in Italian football. But with COVID restrictions keeping fans out, there’s a better chance than ever that the pitchside microphones will pick up every murmur and curse that escapes players’ lips and transport them into the homes of thousands of viewers.

File picture of Italy and Juventus legend Gianluigi Buffon. AP photo

Rome: If Juventus travels through the city with local rivals Turin on Saturday for the Easter weekend, they will have to do without the experienced goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

In Italian football, players are told to pay attention to their language, but occasionally, in the heat of competition, an utterance that sometimes invokes or even chastises the divine just slips out.

In empty stadiums, there’s a better chance than ever that the microphones on the sidelines will remove every murmur and curse that escapes the players’ lips and transport them to the homes of thousands of spectators.

« It’s part of his Tuscan character, » said journalist Ilaria D’Amico, defending her partner Buffon after he played during the Game against Parma in December when he was teaching teammate Manolo Portanova.

The legendary goalkeeper was initially fined E5,000 uro (US $ 5,890). However, on appeal this week, he was banned from one game to reconcile him with others who have also violated their feelings and the sensitive pitchside microphones.

Roma midfielder Bryan Cristante also became this season in December and Lazio winger Manuel Lazzari in February banned for « blasphemous expression ».

According to Italian law, any blasphemy in public – whether by a footballer, a banker or a garbage man – can be fined up to 309 euros Former coach Marcello Lippi, who won five Serie A titles with Juve, not to mention the 2006 World Cup, got his roots in Tuscany, where blasphemous idioms are heard more often than in other regions Of Italy, responsible for its occasional mistakes.

But Kaka, who is very religious, would not stand playing for AC Milan and sometimes his tea Ask colleagues not to blaspheme.

« It’s not God’s fault if they miss a chance or misplace a pass, » he would say.

With a crowded stadium, those moments often went under the radar, but the closed stadium policy brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic means that the swear words will no longer go unnoticed.

« In empty stadiums we now hear almost everything and it’s gotten a lot more complicated for referees and referees, eyes and ears to close, « writes the journalist Marco d’Ottavi, who writes for the Ultimo Uomo (Last Man) website and the author is of a detailed account of the history of blasphemy in Serie A, said AFP.

The sanction was « almost always » there, he says, but the first documented case goes back to a match between Como and Juventus in 1975.

In a tense atmosphere at the end of the game, when Como just before a spectacular win against Juventus stood, w Captain Claudio Correnti was cautioned for blasphemy. Juve drew 2-2 after the free kick.

« I would have preferred if we remembered what I did as a footballer, » Correnti told local newspaper Corriere di Como 35 years later in 2010 .

Sometimes it drifts into the background, forgotten. This is a priority at other times, such as in 2010 when the President of the Italian Football Association (FIGC), Giancarlo Abete, a former Christian Democrat MP, encouraged referees to send players off for blasphemy.

Are red cards a rarity, but it happened in 1992 with Serie B player Marco Pacione, who received his marching orders a few minutes after a game started for swearing after a foul.

Usually the sanction is an afterthought based on audio – and video recordings, as was the case with Buffon.

His defense that when he swore he did not use the word « Dio » but « zio » (uncle in Italian) was not enough this time around escape the ban.

« The problem is, if you get stuck on the microphone, you get sanctioned, but if you don’t, you aren’t, » said d’Ottavi. « It’s not nice to swear on TV, but it doesn’t seem nearly as serious to me as an act of violence or aggression towards the referee. »

However, this Italian « singularity » is not yet as strict as in the neighboring championship of the Vatican, in which blasphemy is more strongly sanctioned.

A few years ago, according to the daily La Repubblica, a player was banned for an entire season after he had « lost his head in a referee decision ».

The story does not tell whether the late Pope John Paul II, a goalkeeper in his youth in Poland and later a 27-year-old resident of Vatican City, ever broke the rules.

Changed date:

April 02, 2021 10:28:10 PM IST

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