.
.
.
.
.

Football: Udine is alone at the top After 899 matches in the Italian championship, Udine is for the first time at the top of the Italian league. This is an absolute record the Friuli-based club had never set in its history, which underlines the validity of provincial teams as far as organization is concerned. Yet, it is not the first time that so-called minor clubs manage to momentarily or definitively take the lead in the course of a championship. In the last few years, the Italian football has only been represented by few superpowers, which are able to constantly achieve positive results. Indeed, the "Six sisters" (Juventus, Lazio, Milan, Inter, Roma and Parma) are always in line for the title. However, after four matches, now the leading team is a glorious club from the Friuli province, i.e. Udinese.  If we also consider, leaving aside the team trained by De Canio, the excellent results achieved by Atalanta, which was able to frighten Milan when it was winning 3-1, all that means that, up to now, all indications emerging from the 2000-2001 season are decidedly contrary to predictions. Thanks to accurate planning and high economic investments in prestigious players, until now the most important teams like Milan, Juventus and Lazio have been able to win the last titles. The days when minor teams like Cagliari, trained by Scopino, and Verona, trained by Bagnoli, managed to win the Italian championship seem to be definitively over. Nowadays, football clubs are organized to win all the various European tournaments and only those clubs that have major incomes from sponsors or TV have the possibility to achieve this target, provided that they have made huge investments. Yet, despite this situation, this year Udinese and Atalanta, too, are given the opportunity to fight for the title.  To give an example, how is it possible that a team like Inter, that has invested billions lire to hire the best players in the world, is so far from the top of the league? That could be partially explained by saying, with rather stereotyped words, that sometimes heart makes up for money. Yet, another factor should be considered, which is directly linked to the grandeur of the above-mentioned football superpowers. Due to their leading position in Italy and Europe, these clubs are now involved in a number of important tournaments. Lazio, for example, the current Italian champion, certainly aims at winning the Champions League, but it certainly cannot snub the Italian championship, being the holder of the title. And not even the Coppa Italia trophy, which it won in the past season. It is therefore more and more difficult for a team to organize itself in order to take part in all these tournaments, also considering the fact that the decision to give priority to a certain event does not certainly mean for a club the certainty to come in first. Udine, besides having only to play for the Uefa Cup, has also the advantage of playing with no excessive pressure in the Italian championship, and it can count on another decisive factor: the fact of working in a quiet environment. Thus, De Canio, and before him Guidolin and Zaccheroni, have been able to shape a compact group without having to worry to achieve positive results at all costs. The possibility to do tests with the team, replace only few players, without upsetting the group, and integrate some players within an already fairly good group is a privilege that should not be under evaluated. It is certainly a different situation from Milan, where after only two negative results supporters start booing and the team president feels bound to change something, spending more money to hire other players or dismissing the coach.  The message once again coming from the sound Italian province is self-evident: all things considered, metropolitan clubs and money are never determining to win over a provincial team that makes its measured moves depending on its means. After all, an old popular saying tells that the best wine is to be found in small barrels… Paolo Ghisoni

.
 Leadership Medica^®
Mensile di scienza  medica e attualita`
 Copyright 1997© All Rights Reserved