Zampa is Bringing Crazy Back

By: Martha | January 29th, 2008

Zampa MAKE IT SO For those of you who don’t follow Serie A, he’s a brief introduction to Palermo President Maurizio Zamaparini: He’s mad as a hatter. Usually it’s a charming sort of mad, but it also sometimes descends into racism, which is unsettling (unless it’s saying he doesn’t trust the French because of Raymond Domenech, in which case it’s hard to be too offended), and reminds us that he really is at least a little bit off. As long as you’re not a Palermo supporter, though, he’s generally a source of much amusement, and can be counted on to lose his mind on a monthly basis, if not more often. Today, as you might suspect, he’s at it again. And his target is a scourge of football presidents everywhere: Misbehaving ballboys.

In Palermo’s match last weekend, they went down to 10 men on the hour mark and gave up the only goal of the game less than two minutes later, ultimately losing 1-0 to Roma, despite turning in one of the better defensive performances in weeks (which, seeing as how this is Palermo, isn’t saying much). The goal came on a quickly taken corner, during which Palermo were clearly still scrambling to get set up as Mancini was heading the ball into the back of the net.

Now, everyone who pays any attention to Serie A knows Roma like to take corners quickly. Everyone. Palermo coach Francesco Guidolin said as much in his post-match interview, not only indicating an awareness of the tactic but also suggesting that his team had actually discussed Roma corners in training. Zamparini, however, is furious, and wants either a replay, or all three goddamn points.

According to Zamparini, in the rulebook states that the ballboy has to stay behind the boards and toss the ball to a player, rather than place it on the ground, near the flag. Needless to say, no one has ever complained about the zillion other occasions on which the ball is either placed on the ground or rolled out toward the flag by the ballboy, but this is Zampa, and his team lost, so he needs someone to blame. His lawyers are on the case and, while the goal technically could be overturned, the Lega Calcio are surely very accustomed to Zamparini and his rantings by now, and the most that is likely to happen is a memo to teams telling them to reign in their ballboys. It is, however, nice to know someone’s reading the rule book.