Intervista a Carlo Petrini - 31 marzo 2006 (completa)

This is the full interview I conducted for Excite with Carlo Petrini at his home in Lucca, on the occasion of the release of his book "Le corna del diavolo." YouTube wasn't yet popular at the time, and it wasn't possible to publish such long videos, which is why the interview was subsequently republished elsewhere, but never here. I'm doing it today, after finding the original file on my old, practically broken computer. I should have done it before his death. I didn't have time. Enjoy, and thank you again to Carlo, who was so kind, both then and since. Introducing this interview, I wrote on my blog: On Friday, March 31st, I went to Carlo Petrini's home in Lucca to interview him. Carlo Petrini was a professional soccer player in the 1970s, playing for Lecce, Genoa, Torino, Catanzaro, Varese, Milan, Ternana, Roma, Verona, Cesena, and Bologna. In 1980, he was engulfed in the soccer betting scandal, and a heavy suspension virtually ended his career. His first book, the autobiographical Nel fango del Dio Pallone (In the Mud of the Football God), exposed the hypocrisy surrounding the gilded world of soccer. As a firsthand witness, Petrini discusses doping and drug abuse, betting, behind-the-scenes affairs, excesses, corruption, and black money, revealing everything that "is done in soccer but shouldn't be said." From then on, Petrini became a hot topic, an inconvenient figure to be avoided. But he persisted and published other books, each more controversial than the last: among them Il calciotore suicidato (The Suicided Soccer Player), an investigation that seeks to shed light on the mysterious death of Donato Bergamini, a Cosenza player who "committed suicide" under a truck, a death filed away with a "convenient truth good only for preserving the golden image of professional soccer." And then there's "I pallonari," a journey into doping and football betting over the last two decades; "Scudi dopati," about the Juventus doping trial; and the latest, just released, "Le corna del Diavolo," about Silvio Berlusconi's political use of football and AC Milan. This is a careful analysis of all the stages that led the Forza Italia leader from the acquisition of the broadcast rights to the 1980 World Cup to the Prime Minister's office. Carlo Petrini is now almost blind and has recently undergone surgery for a brain tumor; there's a real possibility that he, too, is one of the many players from the 1970s whose health was devastated by the treatments the players of his time were subjected to, to play at all costs, then as now. Petrini's words are never light or banal: names, surnames, facts, accusations, anecdotes, nothing is missing. This long interview is no exception. Enjoy.