Baggio Blows Lid On Lippi Espionage
Friday 16th November 2001
Roberto Baggio has claimed he was dropped by coach Marcello Lippi at Internazionale for refusing to pass on dressing-room gossip. "He asked me to be his spy, but I refused and became the substitute of substitutes. Everything I did was wrong," he said.
The Brescia forward makes the allegation in his autobiography, due out in Italy next week. He blows the lid on several managerial spats, but none so controversial as that with Lippi, who is now back in charge at Juventus.
"He started a war with me at Inter," Baggio writes. "He criticised me for everything, even simple dribbles. He used all his power to destroy me, but he didn't succeed.
"He also criticised me because I talked to journalists and complained about his behaviour. But it was all true. Now I want to meet him as soon as possible and explain what I think."
The Divine Ponytail is equally cutting about Renzo Ulivieri, recently parted from Parma and once Baggio's coach at Bologna.
"He didn't want me there," claims the striker. "He told president Giuseppe Gazzoni that, with me, Bologna were relegation candidates. He even feigned his resignation to try to stop my arrival. He was only jealous."
Baggio completes a hat-trick of character assasinations by turning on ex-Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi, who controversially substituted him against Norway at USA 94 when goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca was sent off and he needed to send on Luca Marchegiani.
"Arrigo Sacchi always told me that I was as important to Italy as Diego Maradona was to Argentina," writes Baggio. "I was happy because he rated me. But as soon as Sacchi met his first problem, he substituted me. When I left the field, I said: 'He is crazy.'
"I am not surprised that Sacchi was exhausted by football. He only lived for game-plans and blackboards. But I don't hold a grudge against him."
Lippi refused to respond to Baggio's accusations. "I don't concern myself with what Roberto Baggio says or writes. That is his style."
Ulivieri added: "I am not jealous of any players, but a manager is a protagonist too. Baggio, with me, scored 22 goals for Bologna. Will I read his autobiography? I have no time and prefer other books."
