La Stampa 16/05/00 - Interview with Luciano Moggi
"Sunday night, we managers dined with the team. We thanked them for their behavior and we then set them free. No, no tragedy. The good about soccer is its imponderability."
YOU MEAN THAT YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE IN LAZIO?
"Sunday morning I believed that we were going to win."
YOU NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT A PLAY-OFF?
"No. Then the apocalypse happened. I dare anybody to find in the history of world soccer a game that was resumed after 86 minutes. Imagine the lack of concentration, the confusion of ideas. An ill-favoured match, you can't judge it."
DID COLLINA DO WRONG?
"We told him that you couldn't play, but when I saw him trying again after two attempts, I understood that it was supposed to be done."
HOW MUCH DID THE ATMOSPHERE DURING THE WEEK INFLUENCE THE DECISION?
"A precise concept was followed: make confusion. Cragnotti said that certain diatribes are normal on the eve of a match, I don't know if it's really normal. This was the perfecting of an atmosphere made on purpose somce we went ahead. However, well done Lazio and, if we were meant not to win, it's better that Cragnotti did compared to others."
WHY?
"Because he's a manager and because he didn't give up when 9 points behind. He never let anything to chance to reach the goal. And the poison torwards us didn't start from him: another hand spattered it."
INSIDE LAZIO?
"Maybe not. Let's say close to it."
ARE YOU REFERRING TO SENSI?
"He had just said that the Roman teams would have never won as long as I was here and the facts denied him. He brought to himself bad luck. I know that Juve wins a lot, because here there are people that work and make decisions from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM. I can imagine that Milan wins because of the same organization. But it's also easy to understand why Roma doesn't win: because it wastes energies to start controversies while it should instead imitate Lazio."
IN THE MEANTIME, THIS YEAR YOU LOST TOO.
"Only because 71 points weren't enough, an enormity. Lazio was immense in making one more, we don't feel guilty. Even Gianni Agnelli told me that he was saddened by the epilogue, but that he's happy the way we behaved."
WASN'T IT A MISTAKE TO PRESENT YOURSELF IN FRONT OF TV CAMERAS, RIGHT AFTER THE DE SANTIS CASE, WITHOUT MAKING ANY APOLOGY FOR THAT MISTAKE?
"I don't understand where is the arrogance of which I'm accused. It's arrogant who attacks, not he who defends himself for something he didn't do."
BUT THIS STRENGTHENED THE IDEA OF A MOGGI PUPPETEER.
"What I received is something I earned with my work and not with the threads of the puppeteer. But some people like to describe me as such, so it can justify to the eyes of the world their incapacity of reaching results."
DON'T DEPRECIATE YOURSELF. YOU DO HAVE A CERTAIN CONTROL, A POWER...
"Everybody saw what kind of power it is. Juve lost the scudetto with two losses, at Verona and at Perugia, with teams that didn't have anything to ask from the championship. We lost with Milan and Lazio when, with different decisions, we wouldn't have lost, and I could continue like this until the final match, with a game decided after 86 minutes of break. This is my power. It only misses that they would accuse me of provoking the rain."
WHAT WILL PETRUCCI, CARRARO, AND NIZZOLA SAY TODAY?
"That the championship is in order. Now that Juve didn't win everything went back to place. The fact is that soccer is really clean, but, if we win, it doesn't seem so. I believe it's time we go back to a concept of sport, of fun."
YOU ARE EVOKING A RETURN TO A SPORT DIMENSION THAT THE BIG TEAMS DESTROYED.
"But you can't reach the levels of last week. I ask myself how can people with families can provoke an atmosphere in which we had to go around with a convoy. I tried to render the situation less dramatic, but I failed. Umberto Agnelli had to come to my rescue to defend me."
DID YOU EXPECT THAT OTHER PRESIDENTS, OTHER THAN GAUCCI, THREATENED HIS PLAYERS IF THEY DIDN'T COMMIT THEMSELVES?
"Gaucci did well. And, living in Rome, had to do it."
BUT IF YOU FOUND OUT THAT LAZIO, OTHER THAN VERON'S SUSPECT NATURALIZATION, BOUGHT OLIVE AND MATERAZZI FROM PERUGIA, AS TRADE RUMORS GO, WHAT WOULD YOU THINK?
"First you have to prove it's right"
YOU CALLED AMORUSO FOR MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS.
"I will tell him that he's coming back to Juve because he played hard against us and he proved himself a correct person."
SOUNDS LIKE A THREAT. CRAGNOTTI SAID THAT THE LAZIO MODEL WILL TRIUMPH, WHICH WAS BUILT ON BIG MARKET INVESTMENTS. WILL YOU DO THE SAME?
"We spent 35 billion for Kovacevic, not two lire. And we believe we don't need much: if we had made 10 points less than Lazio, not one, I would have said that we lacked something. Instead, there is no need for a revolution."
WAS THE INTERTOTO A MISTAKE?
"No, it was like training against Serie C teams. And, in Perugia, we were still running with 10 men."
WILL CRESPO OR BATISTUTA REPLACE INZAGHI?
"Inzaghi stays. He scored 15 goals and next year, with Del Piero scoring more and with Kovacevic and Amoruso we will have a good choice. I can't see a stronger group."
MOGGI, HOW CAN YOU WIN WITH THE 8TH-RANKED ATTACK OF SERIE A? YOU ONLY NEEDED CRESPO...
"But you have to prove it."
IS IT TRUE THAT YOU WILL RENOUNCE TO O'NEILL, BECAUSE IN CAGLIARI, AT THE END, WASN'T SERIOUS?
"O'Neill will be here and he's a great player. About commitment, the same was said about Davids before he came to Juve. Then we saw what happened. We want O'Neill for his qualities as a human being and as a star player."
IS ANCELOTTI ON THE HOT SEAT?
"Never thought about it. He did the best he could do, he has a contract, he won't be touched."
BUT YOU DIDN'T EXTEND HIS CONTRACT.
"In any case, it's something we would have talked later. Juventus isn't in a hurry when making important decisions."
AND, IF AFTER TWO SEASONS WITH NO VICTORIES, THE AGNELLIS DECIDED TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT?
"Who knows! I think this is a joke."
Interview by Marco Ansaldo (mailto:[email protected])
