"If the same clubs are appealing, the message worries me and should worry the entire system. We felt accused of wanting to create discrimination against the Sardinian people. Now the State Police, the Department of Public Security can discriminate against a people? But how can it even occur to you? What way is this to defend interests?" The frontal attack on Cagliari Calcio is by Maurizio Improta, president of the National Observatory on Sports Events, in an interview with Corriere dello Sport on newsstands today. And the reference by the manager, with a long experience also as police commissioner, is obviously related to the appeal of the rossoblù club for the ban on away games (revoked by the TAR of Tuscany) last Sunday in Empoli.
Phrases, those of Improta, that Cagliari Calcio does not approve: «It is regretful to read the statements», the club note, «according to which some football clubs, in a “disturbing” way, present appeals to support the reasons of troublemaking and violent ultras. Cagliari Calcio recently intervened with an appeal to the TAR to protect the reasons of over one and a half million citizens resident in Sardinia, unjustly deprived of the right to follow their favorite team in Empoli without reason: unless you want to argue that all Sardinians are troublemaking and violent ».
The TAR of Tuscany had highlighted how there were no real problems of public order . And at the Castellani last Sunday it was an afternoon of celebration, with almost 1,000 rossoblù supporters in the away section who brought the best part of the cheering to Empoli. "The acceptance of the appeal in court and the lack of any disturbance to public order during and after the Empoli-Cagliari match demonstrate that the predictions of disorder were unfounded ", the club recalls. A situation repeated yesterday, with hundreds of Sardinians arriving from Cagliari at the Arena Civica in Milan to support Fabio Pisacane's Primavera in the Coppa Italia final won 0-3 against Milan, with the team that went to celebrate with their fans after the goals and at the end of the match.
"Cagliari Calcio believes in the purest principles of sport and condemns all forms of violence," the note concludes. And it highlights what President Tommaso Giulini has already said to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi : "He has always supported the reasons of the institutions and will continue to do so, but the time has come to rethink a system that sometimes, without real necessity, adopts generalized restrictions that penalize millions of citizens . It would be really useful if the Ministry of the Interior decided to take a step forward to update it."