Soccer Was the Root Cause

The first leg of the UEFA Champions League ended with a scandal that diverted the attention of the general public from soccer to the now popular subject of law and order and the legal subtleties of organizing sports competitions. Even though this is an important subject, it would be utterly wrong- headed to forget that the authorities or law-enforcement bodies were in no way responsible for the juicy scandal that was sparked by the suspension of the Roma- Dynamo Kyiv match. The real reason was the performance of Ukraine’s champion team at the Italian capital’s Stadio Olimpico. The Romans broke down precisely because Dynamo proved from the very beginning that they had come to win points.

PLAYING WELL MAY BE DANGEROUS

A three-day “mini-tournament” of Ukrainian and Italian clubs (Shakhtar-Milan, Roma-Dynamo in the Champions League and Metalurg Donetsk-Lazio in the UEFA Cup) kicked off last Tuesday in Donetsk. This writer had to watch the game in a Rome sports cafe because Italy broadcasts Champions League matches on pay — TV channels only. None of the cafe patrons wanted to watch the Donetsk game: people preferred seeing other soccer matches on the other TV sets for the simple reason that the heart of the Italian soccer fan is devoted to one club only.

Nobody in Rome will ever support the Milan or Turin clubs. This is why the Italian team’s game in Donetsk stirred no emotions in the Romans. Those who still saw the game agreed with me that Milan was lucky in Donetsk, and their 1:0 win did not reflect the true correlation of forces on the pitch.

As for the Roma-Dynamo Kyiv game, Roma supporters were thoroughly convinced that their club would win-in spite of the fact that the team that is supported by one-half of Rome’s population had more than enough problems before the Champions League kicked off-among them, the replacement of the coach at the very beginning of the new season, a radically revised lineup, and a scandal involving forward Cassano, who punched an opponent in the face during the first national championship match and was sent off the field.

The grandstands of Stadio Olimpico located in a northern suburb of Rome were a little more than half filled. Most of the 38,000 spectators were in the cheap seats behind the nets, where they sang songs, uttered war cries, and played around with fireworks. If you recall that more than 70,000 people came to watch an Italy championship game three days before, you will clearly see the Romans’ attitude toward the Ukrainian side.

Those who gathered in Rome’s Olympic arena immediately took a dislike to the game that was being televised free of charge in Ukraine. The audience was irked by the hosting side’s inability to break through Dynamo’s defenses and outplay the visiting players in most encounters. As a result, almost every minute of the game aroused the indignation of the hot-tempered tiffosi. To make matters worse, Roma’s captain Totti, who gained notoriety during Euro-2004 when he spat in the face of an opponent, found himself tightly shadowed by Dynamo’s Nigerian international Yussuf whom Kyiv headhunters spotted last year. The Italian, whose photos crop up in Roman newspapers and magazines more often than clips of Poplavsky (rector of Kyiv’s University of Culture who dabbles in singing — Ed.) do on the UT-1 television channel, began provoking clashes and appealing to the referee every other minute. Meanwhile, the Dynamo players staged half a dozen counterattacks, missing two chances to score, and then Gavrancic struck home a free kick. The game continued “under the dictation” of the Ukrainian coach Jozsef Szabo. Then the incident occurred, when a projectile thrown from the VIP stand hit referee Anders Frisk.

All this would hardly have happened if Dynamo had played the way they did at the same stadium five years ago, when they capitulated to Lazio. It was the first time in the history of matches against Italian clubs that our side was in charge of the show. This is precisely what raised Italian hackles and triggered the ensuing events.

WHAT DID FRISK WRITE?

After being hit on the head with a solid object right after the first half time, the Swedish referee was unable to continue the game. The rules say that the second half time is to be refereed by a substitute. After nearly a one-hour-long break, it was announced that the substitute would not referee because he was concerned about his safety.

It is easy to understand the Swedish soccer referees. Why should they risk their precious health and inflict losses on insurance companies that will have to pay out large sums for their treatment and recovery? This is not about danger from the spectators: there is a four-meter-deep ditch between the pitch and the grandstands at the Rome stadium. In all probability, the referees were afraid they would be unable to see the game through to the end. Judging by the Roma players’ behavior, the second half might well have ended up with a brawl right on the pitch, which no red cards could have stopped. For losing the first Champions League match was the last thing the Romans wanted.

The stadium waited for almost an hour for the match to resume. Maybe the suspension was not announced on purpose, so that the Roma fans could cool down a little and splash around their energy and emotions on the stands, not on the street. That’s exactly what happened. The spectators left the stadium quietly, and boarded their Fiats and commuter buses.

The UEFA delegate announced that UEFA was going to tackle this problem on the basis of the referee’s written report.

There have been no precedents like this in the history of the Champions League. Even in 1985, when a grandstand caved in during the final game in Brussels, killing several dozen spectators, the match was played to the end. Until now, matches were sometimes postponed for technical or political reasons only. What decision should UEFA make?

Many think it would be logical to replay the match. If such a decision is made, it will create a dangerous precedent: every losing team may then beat up the referee to stop the ill-starred game, which they will then have a chance to replay. Another decision could be disqualification and expulsion from the Champions League of Roma. This could affect Dynamo: our club would be stripped of their well-earned victory and the whole training process would be in shambles. To take on a new opponent, Dynamo would have to seek desperately for a slot in an already tight schedule of games. Even if Roma stays in the League and Dynamo is awarded a win “by default,” which would be quite logical, we will still be robbed of a genuine victory over Italy’s No. 2 club. This will leave a bitter feeling that the Ukrainians were offered their win on a silver platter.

A TEST FOR STANDARDS

UEFA, like other international organizations, is still applying different standards to ex-USSR countries and those of the “true” Europe. Let’s not forget Dynamo’s expulsion from the Champions League in 1995 because of an alleged and never-proven attempt to bribe the referee. If a nonstandard-sized net happens to be set up at a Moscow stadium, the game is canceled and transferred to a neutral pitch, but if the net falls down just before a game at the Madrid stadium, everyone waits for a new set of goal posts to be brought and installed. There are other examples of discrimination against post-Soviet countries. By all accounts, Europe in general and its soccer officials in particular are not exactly in raptures over the fact that some non-EU countries dare to vie for European soccer trophies. The very regulations of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup are based on a discriminatory principle: for instance, the champion of Ukraine has to clear the qualification barrier on the way to the League, while a club that is not even the champion of Italy can instantly enter the League. This scheme has always been based on the presumption that Italian or German clubs are stronger by definition. The games played by Shakhtar vs. Milan and especially Dynamo vs. Roma have shown that the Ukrainian clubs are not weaker but in a way even stronger than the Italian ones. If this trend holds good, the Ukrainians will be on an equal footing with the Spanish, English, Italians, French, etc. Europeans do not want this to happen, so they are trying to find any pretext to push us into a soccer backwater.

Can you guess what decision would UEFA have made if what happened in Rome had taken place in Kyiv? You guessed right! They wouldn’t have dilly-dallied. But when it’s about Roma, they launch a weeklong inquiry into a clear-cut case in order to give the lawyers time to make a decision. I doubt it will be in our favor.

What should we do? Play soccer! This is what the Dynamo players and coaches, as well as club and national soccer federation officials, were saying hot on the heels of the Rome scandal. Playing soccer is the right way for the present-day Dynamo to solve their European problems.