Ancelotti Accepts Italian FA Ruling
Juventus manager Carlo Ancelotti was sanguine after learning that central
defender Paolo Montero had received a three-match ban from the Italian FA
for a punch thrown to Inter's Luigi Di Biagio.
The incident was caught on camera and used as evidence against Montero.
Ancelotti was adamant there should be more consistency in decisions of this
kind and that it was not right that at some matches there are ten cameras,
while at others there are five. Ancelotti declared: "It should be the same
for everyone."
The bad news for Juventus and Ancelotti is that Montero will now miss Juve's
two big matches against Parma and Roma.
In his time at Juventus the Uruguayan international has picked up 11 red
cards in various competitions and will be sorely missed by Juventus as they
strive to stay in the title race after elimination from both European
competition and the Italian Cup.
Ancelotti was annoyed with the way in which his player reacted in Sunday
night's match at the San Siro and said: "Montero paid the price and you can'
t argue with that. He knows he made a mistake but he is a fair player. It
was an instinctive reaction played without thought."
The Juventus coach then went out of his way to point out that his club were
not about to embark on some kind of witch-hunt. He pointed out that the
recent incident involving Roma's Gabriel Batistuta in a League match at
Brescia had no relevance to the Montero incident.
Ancelotti said: "The referee saw it and decided it was not worthy of any
punishment. It was his decision and therefore must be respected."
