Comic strip by: Massimo Ciotoli

The sponsors and the suppliers of the Italian National team will soon have their image returned to them in a measure that matches their investments.

Their publicity, their interests, their products have been inserted between the spectators and the players. At first this was done carefully and with discretion and then it was done with no limits.
The player thinks of the sponsors, of the agents. They think of money for its own sake, they think of bets, of undocumented payments.

Football is secondary. That’s true also for the sponsors. For them it’s a tool, a way of placing bottled water, and telephone recharging. How about the companies with their lobbies, the caterers, the businesses and free tickets in the VIP box where there are always a few bankers who are fans? They are thinking of the TV rights, the political connections, of spread-the-debts-laws, of tailor-made-laws-false-accounting- laws. They were drooling for the Stock Exchange, with shares gifted to the managers for 2 lire, with dividends to shareholders based on non-existent income created by capital gains on worthless players.

That leaves the spectators, the fans, those that today have as intermediaries the sponsorsagentsfinanciersTVrights. Those that take their sonassoonasheis3yearsold to see their team to give them imprinting. They buy them the club shirt and a football and they play with them giving a display of dribbling that is a bit heavy.

But spectators are something that is economically useless.
The companies live with TV rights, sponsors, and ad hoc laws. Stadiums that are empty, half empty, half full are no longer a business. Spectators have had their money taken from them by the sponsors.

However, the consumers haven’t yet been expropriated. Lippi as coach, damages the image of Italians.

It follows that he also damages the image of the sponsors of the National team. And an Italian cannot buy a product from a sponsor with a damaged image. It isn’t done. Lippi damages the sponsors and the suppliers of the pale blues. To help them get out of this painful situation, we‘ll no longer buy their products.
You’ll see that they will be grateful.

Sponsors:

Mapei
Puma
Tim

Suppliers:

Antonio Amato
Beretta
Bilba
Dolce e Gabbana
EminFlex
EuroFly
Fuji Film
Generali
Green Vision
Nutella
Olidata
Pata
Peroni
Radio Italia
Sharp
Silver Cross
Spazio24
Uliveto
Wolkswagen

PS: So as to help the companies in making their choice I would like to buy a half page in a sports newspaper using the money left over in the “Honourables Wanted” account.