The Senate President is once again at odds with the national team coach: “He can’t say things like that; people have the right to protest, as long as it doesn’t turn violent”

Ignazio La Russa vs. Rino Gattuso, Part Two. The Senate President attacks the national team coach following his remarks after the victory over Moldova, in which he criticized the protests of the approximately 500 Italian fans present in Chisinau. “You can’t call a spectator who boos a ‘disgrace’”—the words of the second-highest-ranking official in the state. “I don’t want to stir up controversy, though: Gattuso is right when he says that, with the hope of going to the World Cup, we must unite and support the national team, but even the boos from spectators can be a motivator as long as they aren’t violent.”

This isn’t the first time La Russa has attacked the current head coach. A few hours after Spalletti’s dismissal and Gattuso’s appointment, the President of the Senate gave an interview in which he questioned the FIGC’s choice: “We chose Gattuso, so long live Gattuso; I hope it goes well,” La Russa had said. “But when Gravina says that Gattuso is a symbol of our soccer, I say that’s not quite accurate. If anything, Buffon is, and perhaps he’s behind this decision. In that case, they might as well have made Buffon the selector; you don’t need to be a coach to select a national team. The symbols of our soccer are others; many aren’t coaches, like Totti and Del Piero, then there are Cannavaro, Nesta, Pippo Inzaghi… It’s not right to consider Gattuso the symbol of our soccer. Our soccer isn’t Gattuso’s kind of soccer, but the soccer of Rivera, Baggio, Del Piero, Zenga. So, why not Zenga?” Harsh words to which Gattuso himself had replied at his introductory press conference: “I don’t want to pick a fight with La Russa; I just hope to change his mind and achieve the goal we all share: bringing Italy back to the World Cup.”