Agostino Di Bartolomei former Roma captain who killed himself on May 30 1994 on the anniversary of the Roma V Liverpool European Cup Final 1984
Yes..not Disney, but Fifa, FIFA yet again instead of being a catalyst for great soccer have been a stumbling block to the game itself. What can you expect with Blatter the FIFA number one busy making fun of players like Cristiano Ronaldo and not concerned about the game at all.
If you have been watching the World Cup under-17, 2013 in UAE, you would have seen some excellent matches, however something might have slipped off your mind. In the Brazil V Mexico quarter-final match, in 90 minutes of regulation time it was 1-1, both teams were evenly balanced with excellent players like Nathan of Brazil who scored a cracker of a goal. After regulation time the match went straight to penalty kicks with no extra-time and it was an extraordinary shoot-out with perhaps the most quality kicks ever taken in a shoot-out, Mexico won the shoot-out with a 11-10 scoreline. Even senior players would have envied some of the kicks taken by both Brazil and Mexico.
This sudden ""acceleration" -with no extra-time- to penalty kicks started in the tournament in 2011 in Mexico when the hosts beat Uruguay 2-0 in the final. FIFA still have not come to terms with extra-time phenomena, in 1993 FIFA introduced the golden goal, under this rule, the team that scores the first goal or point during extra time is the winner. The game ends when a golden goal is scored. The most memorable goal you might remember would be in 2000 when France defeated Italy in extra time in the UEFA Euro 2000 Final when David Trezeguet scored a golden goal. The following year, Liverpool F.C. overcame Deportivo Alavés in a thrilling UEFA Cup Final with a golden own goal by Delfí Geli, to make the score 5-4 to Liverpool.
UEFA (The European governing body for football) than decided that they had a lot of time in their hands too and decided to do away with the golden goal and introduce the silver goal -If by now you have a migraine I strongly recommend you do not read this article further -This was introduced in 2002, it was called the silver goal, to decide a competitive match.
This is how it works; In extra time the team leading after the first fifteen minute half would win, but the game would no longer stop the instant a team scored. Competitions that operated extra time would be able to decide whether to use the golden goal, the silver goal, or neither procedure during extra time. The only major competitive match to be decided by a silver goal was the semi-final match of Euro 2004 between Greece and the Czech Republic, when Traianos Dellas scored for Greece after a corner kick in the last two seconds of the first period of extra time. This was also the last ever professional silver goal, hope you still are with me and do not need brain surgery.
In February 2004, the IFAB (The International football association board) came to their senses -or did they?-announced that after Euro 2004 in Portugal, both the golden goal and silver goal methods would be removed from the Laws of the Game.
The golden goal did have appeal, it brought something to the game where everyone who played the game can relate too, when we played football and time was running out and it was getting dark, we would always decide that the team who scored the last goal would win, this was something the average fan or player could relate too.
The silver goal further complicated things, now FIFA strikes again! This time meddling with the World Cup Under-17 competition without extra-time at all, some observers would say that this would be good for the players who can get away from playing extra 30 minutes instead of giving a lethargic performance, after all these are boys and their bodies should not be subjected to this kind of ''torture''. An extra 30 minutes torture for 17 year olds? Players in this age groups are already playing professional football around the world.
On the other hand should a player at that age be subjected to a penalty shoot-out that can be a black mark to him for the rest of his life if he misses a kick? In that match in UAE the first kicker Mosquito took the kick for Brasil. But after he scored, he was called up again after all the kicks were taken by players from both Brazil and Mexico.
He opted to go the left of the goal keeper again, but this time it was saved. Mexico's first kicker Alejandro Diaz was called up again to take the final kick for Mexico and he dully finished it off by putting Mexico in the semi-final. Mosquito did not look much disturbed about it though, he took it like a man and so did the Brazil team. This was because in total three players missed their spot kicks and Mosquito did put in his first one, was it unfair to call the kickers to take kicks again? Should a player be subjected to such pressure at a young age like that? Wouldn't it be better for the substitutes to come in and take the kicks? Better still why not have extra-time like it is in the senior World Cup?
In the 1984 European Cup final, Liverpool played Roma in the final in Rome, Italy. The Romans were expected to win in front of their own fans, the final however went to a shoot-out after a 1-1 draw, it was a tense affair, so tense that the great Brazilian Paulo Roberto Falcao decided not to take a kick. Roma had their captain a true Roman in every sense of the word, Agostino Di Bartolomei, he took his and actually scored. Roma's Francesco Graziani missed his and Liverpool won the cup. Bartolomei was a great play-maker himself, but was shifted to play a screening role in front of the Roma defence because of the genius of Falcao in the play-making position. After the final, It was the beginning of the end for Di Bartolomei, he never got over it and became a journey-man footballer after he was ousted by new manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and moved on to AC Milan, towards the end of his career he turned his eye onto coaching kids and campaigning for a sports centre to be built in the local neighbourhood (as stated by ESPNFC), making the foreshadowed ending all the more sad.
Bartolomei was a great player with his reading and passing accuracy, he then suffered from clinical depression in his later years, and committed suicide by shooting himself on May 30, 1994, ten years to the day after Roma had lost the European Cup final to Liverpool on penalties.
There is a great documentary on this called 11 metri, Bartolomei's case might be extreme, but nevertheless for him this was his moment equivalent to a gladiator in modern times, but the lottery of the penalty should not be given to two such talented teams. The irony of it is that FIFA have actually made the rules and judgement to make this exciting for the spectator, much like in ancient Rome when Christians were tossed to lions and two gladiators were pitted against each other with the audience rejoicing no matter whose blood was shed, spare a thought for the players. Great players past and present like Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zico, Platini, etc all have missed spot kicks, which just goes to show it is not a true measure of a player, so why should talent be subjected to such barometer?
As my Taekwon-do master said in my teens; ''Martial arts will not make you indestructible, but it will give you confidence and discipline and you should use it for self-defence, a last resort", the lottery of the penalty should be just that, a last resort.
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