FOOTBALL: CHIEVO, A MIRACLE IN DIVISION A

What does a city district with around 3,000 inhabitants do in the world’s most important league? Simple, just ask Chievo Verona, a club that has built a positive footballing miracle in recent years. A few seasons ago the Castel di Sangro phenomenon was much talked about, with the same publicity, a small Umbrian club, the result of the passion of a few executives who succeeded in taking it up to division B. Well the feat of the Veneto club, in terms of importance, is surely doubled. “Ceo” is a Veronese hamlet within the urban centre, about 1/50th of the Veronese chief town. Well with these minute numbers, with just 1336 season-ticket holders at home games, next season Chievo will be up against the likes of AC Milan and Inter Milan who have an average of 50,000 supporters filling the stadium. The footballing history of the Veronese club is not recent, since it dates back to the late 1920s. What is recent, however, is the irrepressible rise, in the space of a decade, which has taken them, rivals of the local Hellas team, into the top flight. The chairman Campedelli, a professed Inter fan, but above all, owner of Paluani, has chosen the line of caution and planning, avoiding pointless waste. Foreign players coming to Chievo can be counted on the fingers of one hand; but that which counts is that one of these, the coloured Brazilian Eriberto, has perhaps been one of the decisive factors in getting promotion into division A, in a city defined as being of high racist risk. Therefore the choice of management went against the general trend, but once again proved fruitful. In accordance with the organization of play, of an overall scheme still less inclined to rely on individualities, Chievo has known how to successfully combine little known skillful players, with other young team members, brought on loan from more noble clubs. In a season in which perhaps a spate of injuries and a team list cut to the bone meant they could have even put the team’s aspirations on the back burner, instead promotion was gained having the flavour of provincial miracle. Playing in an unconventional way, obsessively operating the offside trap, the Veronese club was cruising alone at the top of the table for three-quarters of the season. A slump in the final rush, added to the ability of the bigger teams (Piacenza, Turin and Venice) to put in a strong finish, however, did not prevent the heart of Del Neri’s lads from achieving the goal. “Null..A è impossibile” the words displayed on their shirts, after the final whistle of the promotion match with Salernitana, best express the importance of Ceo’s exploit. Now one must, above all, await the boardroom’s reaction to the historic event; a cautious approach could be maintained, avoiding waste and without the obsessive search for high-sounding names, or some familiar values could be lost in accordance with marketing to be successfully exported. The first case would appear more likely, since Chievo has shown in recent years that in football, planning and confidence in a scheme reap the rewards in the end. In short, common sense then, and very likely common sense in the future. With a probable regret that even better conveys the uniqueness of the Chievo phenomenon; the absence of the derby with their Verona neighbours, with whom however, unlike the other metropoli, there is no rivalry which often borders on hate, but mutual support aimed at maintaining the best results.