Marotta and that banner you have to laugh about

If you could (still) joke about football and football, it would be nice to relax in front of a glass of wine and smile about the Marotta League, that nice expression a bit from Varese, a bit Anglophone and very social that dominates the web before, during and after the Inter matches. You could smile, of course, because it would be right to do so even in the face of something that is divisive by its very nature. What is it, the Marotta League? An imaginary championship, an accusation from those who try to belittle Inter’s +15, a perfect alibi or an infinite referee dossier depending on your point of view. But also a perfect ground for being self-deprecating, as the Inter fans were on Monday evening with the banner displayed on display in the stadium. All this together, mixed in an artisanal way and with different gradations, is the Marotta League.

experience

—

It would be nice to joke about it, because after all (almost everyone) laughs about it even in Appiano, players and otherwise. And instead be careful, what do you say, what do you write, look that goal is good and that penalty was all there, that offside is passive and not active. And so on, open Var instead of a healthy open bar. Beppe Marotta has over 40 years of experience in the world of football, he is a manager who knows how to avoid controversies, manage them and understand the healthy boundaries of irony. Not many people can do it. Guardiola, for example: one day they asked him about Haaland’s failed goals, he replied “but what can I tell him, having scored 11 in 11 years?”. Or Szczesny, who after a very defensive Juventus match in Florence smiled with a “we went through difficult moments, about 89 minutes”. Or the most brilliant of all, the Colombian goalkeeper Higuita, who during the Covid pandemic posted a video of his crazy outing and advised “don’t do like me, don’t go out”. A laugh is healthier than a controversy. Or rather: one does not exclude the other, as long as there is also room for smiles alongside the barbs. Inter fans, not all of them in truth, understood this.

his star

—

Then, if you think about it, this championship is really a Marotta League. Because it’s worth the second star for Inter, but also a very personal star for the CEO, now one step away from his tenth scudetto. Well, if we could joke, perhaps we could use a phrase from Henry Kissinger, as Marotta was nicknamed as a young man: “Power is the supreme aphrodisiac”. But no, you can’t joke. It was a penalty! Actually no.