Italian soccer

Very often I wonder where people's credulity ends and where the nationalistic fog blurring people's common sense starts. I refer to Mr. Cookson's letter of Sept. 18, 1996. According to the Daily Telegraph, it seems that Lotto, an Italian kit manufacturer, signed up the Welshman Ryan Giggs. For normal people the deed represents just a good publicity stunt aimed at opening up or increasing a market. For Mr. Cookson it represents the consecration of a player who has been branded one-legged by the soccer media. I believe that Giggs is not suitable for Italian soccer. After being shunted from one team to another, he will be sent back home as has already happened with Gascoigne, Platt et alia.

Besides being chauvinist, Mr. Cookson is also a little bit inattentive to what happens around him. He writes that "Italian soccer is in a sorry state of decline" but he forgets to pay attention to some small particularities. For example, he doesn't note that Italy is the country with the most teams in the European cups (including two teams in the Champions League). He forgets to notice that the Italian Under-21 team has,for three years running, won the European Championship. Unfortunately for Mr. Cookson, there is not yet an Over-35 European Championship because England wouldn't have any valid opponents. But a further thing slipped Mr. Cookson's mind; the World's best players are actually playing in Italy while English soccer is saddled with the rejects.

PIERO RONCI

Jakarta