A rare incident happened in Italy yesterday (November 17). It was thought that the coach would be praised when the home team won big, but Massimiliano Riccini lost his job after helping the U18 Invicta Sauro team defeat Marina Calcio 27-0 on Saturday evening.
The Tuscany youth team is leading their youth tournament while Marina Calcio is at the bottom of the table. Due to the injury crisis, Marina Calcio had to use a player from up front to guard the goal. This reluctant goalkeeper could not block continuous shots from the home team.
In 90 minutes, there were 2 players from U18 Invicta Sauro who scored 6 goals, and another player scored 7 goals.
Disappointed after the match, Marina Calcio's sporting director, Tiberio Pratesi declared them victims of "lack of respect". An Invicta Sauro official felt the same way and apologized to his opponent.
Finally, Invicta Sauro president Paolo Brogelli announced the dismissal of coach Riccini. In the announcement issued from the club's homepage, Mr. Paolo Brogelli said: "We were stunned and felt regretful when our U18 team defeated Marina Calcio 27-0".
The inherent values of a young team have no place for such results. opponents must always be respected, but unfortunately that did not happen today. As the president, I sincerely apologize to Marina. I also informed that the club's board have agreed to fire coach Riccini.
Our coaches have the responsibility to train young players, but above all, to educate them to become human. Coach Riccini couldn't do that today."
After being sacked, coach Riccini wrote a letter to expose the irresponsible and educational value of his team's victory.
In the letter, Mr. Riccini wrote: "I would like to reassure you that no one at Invicta Sauro has ever thought about arbitrarily humiliating or mocking their opponents, nor has there been any anger from a stronger team against a weaker team. A few minutes after the start of the match, we scored some goals, however, on a cold and rainy day, it would be a humiliation to ask the team not to play for the remaining 80 minutes.
My guys played without panic, without competition and it was a game with very few errors and no warnings. Realizing that the situation had arisen, in the first half I immediately went to the coach of the opposing team to ask if we could do anything to help them and he replied that the only thing to do was to play seriously."
However, the decision cannot be changed. And Mr. Riccini's recent lesson will certainly be a bone-aking experience for anyone who wants to take on the coaching position of Invicta Sauro.
