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Thursday 13 March, 2008
Blog: Cross to bear
Parma are fighting for their Serie A lives. James Horncastle explains why he'd find relegation hard to swallow
It isn’t just the ham and cheese that make English people think fondly of Parma. Italy’s gastronomic city par excellence has been serving us treats on the football pitch for the last 18 years, some bitter, and some sweet.
The Gialloblu’s current position is hard to swallow. Coach Mimmo Di Carlo was sacked on Monday after Parma fell to their 12th defeat of the campaign, and his replacement, Hector Cuper, has 11 fixtures to keep the Crociati in Serie A. The team haven’t won away all season and are yet to travel to Juventus and Fiorentina, while Inter await them at the Ennio Tardini on the final day of the campaign.
Parma’s fall from grace has been as fast and perilous as one of those Gloucestershire cheese-rolling competitions. The club that, having never been in the First Division, won eight titles in 14 years under the patronage of the Tanzi dynasty between 1990 and 2004 has been in financial meltdown over the past three seasons.
The Tanzi’s owned Parmalat, the dairy giant whose name was emblazoned across the Gialloblu’s shirt. In December 2003 the company nearly disappeared after a £12bn hole was found in its accounts. The cash-cow that provided the milk which allowed Parma to compete with Italy’s top clubs dried up. Calisto Tanzi was jailed for fraud and money-laundering in the biggest corporate scandal Europe has even seen. The little Emilian town’s people were no longer talking about parmesan cheese but parmesan sleaze.
In 2003-04 Serie A had a new derby – il derby dei bancorottieri – between Lazio, who were in similar financial dire straits, and Parma. The romance was over. The provincial side that out of nowhere became part of the grandiose ‘Seven Sisters’, winning a European Cup-Winners Cup, two UEFA Cups, a European and Italian Super Cup as well as three Coppa Italias, was back to being a small rural club no bigger than relegation rivals Siena and Empoli.
Put this into perspective – a team from a city the size of Walsall came within two points of winning the Scudetto in the 1996-97 season.
While Parma is a pale shadow of its former-self our memories of their golden period remain intact. Who can forget Tino Asprilla’s goal against Milan in 1993 which ended the legendary Rossoneri’s 58-match unbeaten run?
The Gialloblu brought to our attention the talents of Gianfranco Zola and several World Cup winners from Fabio Cannavaro and Gigi Buffon to Lilian Thuram and Claudio Taffarel. Forwards like Adrian Mutu, Hernan Crespo, Adriano and Alberto Gilardino all, incredibly, enjoyed formative experiences with the Crociati.
Call it cheesy, call it sentimental, but I sincerely hope Parma can escape the drop, like they did last season and in 2004. Otherwise, I fear we will not see them at this level again for a long time.
Blog: Cross to bear
Parma are fighting for their Serie A lives. James Horncastle explains why he'd find relegation hard to swallow
It isn’t just the ham and cheese that make English people think fondly of Parma. Italy’s gastronomic city par excellence has been serving us treats on the football pitch for the last 18 years, some bitter, and some sweet.
The Gialloblu’s current position is hard to swallow. Coach Mimmo Di Carlo was sacked on Monday after Parma fell to their 12th defeat of the campaign, and his replacement, Hector Cuper, has 11 fixtures to keep the Crociati in Serie A. The team haven’t won away all season and are yet to travel to Juventus and Fiorentina, while Inter await them at the Ennio Tardini on the final day of the campaign.
Parma’s fall from grace has been as fast and perilous as one of those Gloucestershire cheese-rolling competitions. The club that, having never been in the First Division, won eight titles in 14 years under the patronage of the Tanzi dynasty between 1990 and 2004 has been in financial meltdown over the past three seasons.
The Tanzi’s owned Parmalat, the dairy giant whose name was emblazoned across the Gialloblu’s shirt. In December 2003 the company nearly disappeared after a £12bn hole was found in its accounts. The cash-cow that provided the milk which allowed Parma to compete with Italy’s top clubs dried up. Calisto Tanzi was jailed for fraud and money-laundering in the biggest corporate scandal Europe has even seen. The little Emilian town’s people were no longer talking about parmesan cheese but parmesan sleaze.
In 2003-04 Serie A had a new derby – il derby dei bancorottieri – between Lazio, who were in similar financial dire straits, and Parma. The romance was over. The provincial side that out of nowhere became part of the grandiose ‘Seven Sisters’, winning a European Cup-Winners Cup, two UEFA Cups, a European and Italian Super Cup as well as three Coppa Italias, was back to being a small rural club no bigger than relegation rivals Siena and Empoli.
Put this into perspective – a team from a city the size of Walsall came within two points of winning the Scudetto in the 1996-97 season.
While Parma is a pale shadow of its former-self our memories of their golden period remain intact. Who can forget Tino Asprilla’s goal against Milan in 1993 which ended the legendary Rossoneri’s 58-match unbeaten run?
The Gialloblu brought to our attention the talents of Gianfranco Zola and several World Cup winners from Fabio Cannavaro and Gigi Buffon to Lilian Thuram and Claudio Taffarel. Forwards like Adrian Mutu, Hernan Crespo, Adriano and Alberto Gilardino all, incredibly, enjoyed formative experiences with the Crociati.
Call it cheesy, call it sentimental, but I sincerely hope Parma can escape the drop, like they did last season and in 2004. Otherwise, I fear we will not see them at this level again for a long time.
