In Stradella there are 700 members: he is the largest in Italy The leader Filipponi: “Unworthy jest that they will blow up”
Stradella. “Hi Mario, try to make an ignorant like me understand something about football: what are Inter and company trump cards really doing with the Superlega?”: The message from Giancamillo, a loyal Inter fan, arrived just before the chat with the journalist. Others have received similar messages, others will arrive. Many, hundreds. He is Mario Filipponi da Stradella, governor of the most important Inter club in Italy (“And therefore of the world“, he specifies): over 700 members. In 2010, in the year of the legendary Inter “treble”, they had reached 1,780: a world record for interism. Then the decline: “The fault of nine years of the black and white regime” comments Filipponi. The club, whose president is Roberto Vecchioni (“Luci a San Siro”) will turn 20 next year and remain at the top of national interism. “Do you know how many cards I have signed in recent years?” Asks the Inter governor. “27 thousand” is answered immediately. The Inter world also passes through Stradella: by force, then, they ask the governor Filipponi what he thinks of the Super League with Inter, Milan and Juve plus the other elected group of Spanish and English teams. And Filipponi has no doubts in giving his verdict.
For money, not for love
‘A joke, an unworthy thing. It disgusts me. But rest assured: nothing is done about it. They block them: UEFA and the Fila send them all upside down. Them and the Super League »: Filipponi has no doubts. And he does not even have them to explain why his Inter also ended up on this joust together with his Rossoneri cousins and the “benevolent” Juventus. «Inter – he says convinced – was pulled in. The cart is being pulled by the Spaniards with that … (TV beeps or judicial omissions are all there, believe me) of the president Andrea Agnelli. Juventus are in business and in league with Real Madrid for some time: this was understood with the transfer of Ronaldo. The maneuver is all theirs “.
Inter, however, is in it, maybe even just as a supporting player. The governor does not hide an inconvenient truth that he has known for some time, speaking with former presidents: from Pellegrini («My favorite», he glosses) to Moratti. «The real question is the debts – Filipponi ruled – The fans do not have it very clear, but the big clubs are drowning in debts. We at Inter still have to finish paying Spalletti’s salary. Then there is Conte’s. Then there are the players’ signings. Incredible stuff ».
Filipponi is a river in flood. The ethics key is touched and he is still the president of an Inter club that has raised 800 thousand euros to help welfare structures (from Don Mazzi, to the speakers, to the autistic associations). «As soon as the pandemic started – he vented – I told my friend Beppe Bergomi to launch this proposal on Sky TV: for a while all top Serie A players should be satisfied with taking one million euros a year. You know what a sacrifice, they give the rest to charity. Bergomi replied: Mario, forget it. The whole system would blow up ».
For money, not for passion. «Of course, what passion? – the governor blurts out – I am a free Inter fan, not a corporate supporter. And I say it clearly: our current Chinese owners would not cry, of course, a whole day as I cried on May 5, 2002 when we lost the Scudetto with those there (read Juve). They look at the budgets, at the money to get out. This Supelega story could be handy to make ends meet, but it remains an unworthy thing. How do you leave out a team like Atalanta that shows the green mice to all ‘ste blazoned? A thing created for the money, but that will end in nothing ».
“We the heart, they …”
Inter fans wrote to “captain Zanetti” asking to think again about the Superlega. Governor Filipponi will not mobilize his super club: «Those of the company have the money in mind – he comments – on Zanetti, then, I keep my ideas. It is no longer my Appiano Gentile. It is no longer the time of Boninsegna, Corso, Beccalossi. Except, now, only Lukaku: very nice person. The moral is this: we, the fans, on the one hand, cheer with the heart; they, those of the company, on the other hand, having to balance the budgets inflated by the engagements that they themselves have granted. Different ways. In the meantime, with our club we are preparing for a great charity evening. We will deliver a gold record made by Vecchioni to three myths of our song: Gianni Morandi, the talented Emma and Al Bano. It will be a great evening of Interism, the real one. The one with the heart ».
Other than the Superlega: «Still with this history: they don’t do it. I got it? They don’t. Don’t worry ». –
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