The games must go on
It may be Good Friday, the most hallowed occasion in the Christian calendar and traditionally a day for reflection, but it's business as usual in the Primera Division at 8.30 pm tonight for the artists of Barcelona and Villarreal. Catalonia is not Andalucía, after all, and the Semana Santa is more observed down south than it is up north so the game goes on.
Pasqua is big in Lombardy, too, and many Milanese would be happy to spend their entire Good Friday at devotions but for one nagging doubt. You see, AC Milan and FC Barcelona are scheduled to meet on Tuesday night in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final and the doubt of the nagging nature has its origins in the Serie A derby between AC Milan and Inter Milan, which was planned for tomorrow. Why give the Catalans an extra day's rest before Tuesday night's game, was the question AC Milan posed and, given the club's enormous clout, it got the derby moved from tomorrow to today, Good Friday. The Vatican responded sharply.
"The insensibility of the soccer world is discouraging," Cardinal Ersilio Tonini told the sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport. "There is no justification for this choice." Echoing Stalin, "The Pope? How many divisions has he got?" AC Milan has concluded the Vatican is not a player in the big leagues so it has pulled rank and forced the wretched Inter onto the field tonight. BTW, want to buy an Italian club? Inter owner Massimo Moratti says he is prepared to sell the club if the right buyer comes forward. For your millions, you'll get a solid block of racist fans and a side that seems unable win, at home or away.
UPDATE: Barcelona 1 - 0 Villarreal; AC Milan 1 - 0 Inter Milan.
Comments
It's a bit much of you to point fingers at others for what they were doing on Good Friday when you were using the day to blog. Some pray, some play, some blog. To each their own!
Posted by: Rose Sinclair-North | April 15, 2006 11:24 AM
True. But I think this is a matter of scale. My two Good Friday posts were rattled off in minutes and did not require the presence of thousands to witness the outcome, as the games did. But I agree with your drift and I feel now that two posts were excessive. There are more important things to do on Good Friday.
Posted by: Eamonn | April 15, 2006 10:07 PM