sport

The good, the bad, the ugly and the holy of football

"People keep talking about the negative aspects of football, like doping, violence, false passports, players’ demands and overall contribution to the team … but like everything else there is another side of football. The good and the holy are ignored by the bad and the ugly. That’s life – unfair!"

This is the philosophy of former Malta coach,Tony Formosa.

He mentions a typical example of the better side of football to me.

"I read about Cafu of Roma and his brilliant colleagues who while on holiday in Brazil organised a charity match with the entrance ticket being a kilo of food. They had a container, full of food, which they donated to the poor. Isn’t that fantastic?" he asks.

"Of course we are well aware that there is too much money in football, even though many clubs are struggling. UEFA assured its affiliation members of 1,350,000 Swiss francs over four years from the 79 million francs profits registered during EURO 2000!

"The sky is the limit for some but it will not last long. The President of the German Football Association Gerhard Mayer–Vorfelder was adamant that there will soon be a salary cap.

"But I do not know whether that applies to Iraq where Saddam Hussein’s son Oudai has been elected president!" he adds with a smile.

The former Malta coach thinks that there are far too many players earning huge amounts of money. "Several of these have very good agents as they are not worth the contracts they managed to obtain," he says.

Highlighting a few youngsters who he thinks we should look out for, he mentions South Americans, Javier Saviola of Barcelona and Argentinians, Nicolas Burdisso, Leandron Romangnoli and Andres D’Alessandro who will soon be brought to Europe. These, alongside the Brazilians Lucio and Henrique Ewerthon who have already been signed by German clubs.

"Just remember the names. Sometimes money does not buy points," says Mr Formosa. "Look at Chievo, the Italian ‘provincial’ side that is fast becoming the darling of Europe. Their invested capital reads about Lm12 million (38 miliardi 316 milioni); Inter, for example spent 871 miliardi and 835 million lire, something in the region of Lm180 million or to give another example, 23 times more than Chievo! I will be the first to admit that Chievo is a pleasant ‘surprise’, but it also shows that sometimes spending millions does not always bring a solution to one’s problems or realise one’s ambitions."

Tony Formosa muses on the fact that the game of association football seems to show little in the way of logic.

"Would you believe that Moratti of Inter is in favour of a league suspension during the cold season, while his rival Galiani at Milan thinks that clubs should work harder to make pitches playable even in frozen days?" he asks. "And these two share the same ground!"

"Then you get Carraro, the newly elected president of the FIGC who says that clubs must be responsible enough to ensure that pitches do not expose players to dangerous surfaces. But that only exceptional cases matches should be postponed, otherwise they will be made to lose the match 0-2."

He makes the point that on any Sunday during winter, if one visits football stadiam in Germany, England, France, Holland, Spain and even Denmark and Norway, the pitches are better than those in Italy.

"I just could not believe my eyes when Carraro stated that Italian football surfaces are the worst," he says. "And then Hartmann, the president of the Bundesliga, says that synthetic surfaces should solve the German teams’ problems and that they should do away with the winter breaks.

"Strange words, I must say!"

Mr Formosa points out that the economic demands are pressure enough for a full programme with few postponements, though one must emphasise that the players’ welfare is of vital importance.

"But clubs and associations should never forget the fans," he adds. "We still have the memory in our minds of last April’s tragedy when 77 people lost their lives because of overcrowding at Ellis Park when Orlando Pirates met Kaiser Chiefs.

"The shocking news is that the families of 77 victims are to receive only $192 each. Isn’t that shameful?"

While Mr Formosa is mentioning names of promising South American players, I refer to the recent episode in which a Maltese player was called by the under-21 national team coach but was over-ruled by the technical director at Ta’Qali.

Tony Formosa would not be drawn into a debate. "But going through the highlights of the year I came across an interesting piece worth repeating," he says.

He describes how Mohammed Kallon, 22, of Inter lost his world record last May. Kallon was the youngest player in the world to play international football when at 14 he played for Sierra Leone. On 6 May, 2001, when Togo played a World Cup qualifier vs Zambia (3-2) Manen Souleymane came in as a sub. He replaced Assegnol in the Togo side.

"The only extraordinary factor in this group ‘A’ African qualifier is that when Souleymane made his entry, he became the youngest player ever to play competitive international football at 13 years and 310 days’ old," he says.

Tony Formosa emphasises that this information has nothing to do with the selection of Marco Brincat by the under-21 coach Ray Farrugia and the decision taken by the technical director, Horst Heese.

"It is just a reference to world records," he says with a smile. "There was a time when only one or two under-19 players were allowed in the former DDR football championships, claiming the law regarding the Protection of Youths."

As usual, Tony Formosa could not help mentioning his best friend, Babs, when summing up.

"As Babs says: ‘The game is replete with stories of the good, the bad, the ugly and the satisfactory, but there is hardly any logic in football’," he says.

Tony Formosa was talking to Ray Abdilla