Rome - AC Milan's retiring captain Paolo Maldini and club
president Silvio Berlusconi were the target of protests at the
weekend as the Devils played their last home game of the season.
A 3-2 defeat against Roma left Milan at risk to slip from third to
fourth place when they visit Fiorentina Sunday in the season finale.
Finishing fourth in the Serie A would send Milan into a qualifying
series for the next European Champions League.
Commentators on Monday noted that the defeat only added to
the bitter chants and banners that die-hard fans had prepared ahead
of the game at the Giuseppe Meazza.
'I'm proud not to be one of them,' the 40-year-old Maldini said
after banners from fans criticized him as he closed a 25-year career
entirely spent at Milan.
After 901 games, seven Serie A titles and five continental
championships, Maldini was surprised to read that he had 'lacked
respect to those who made you rich.'
There were both cheers and jeers as he made his last run around
the pitch at game's end, and on the stands he also had to watch an
oversize jersey of Franco Baresi, whom he replaced as captain.
Polemic confrontations with fans in the past could explain a
behaviour that la Repubblica's Fabrizio Bocca considered worth 'a
prize for stupidity.'
But there were banners and chants also against Berlusconi, the
media magnate turned politician who has owned the club since 1986 and
can boast the same impressive amount of trophies as by Maldini.
The stadium's south curve has not forgiven the president for the
seemingly imminent firing of coach Carlo Ancelotti and maintained its
criticism on the club's allegedly wrong transfer campaign.
The conservative politician, who is serving a third term as
Italy's prime minister, was criticized for the rumoured sale of
Brazil star Kaka and was rudely invited to quit the club.
A banner saying 'For years you have bought lemons and for-show
players. Are you buying showgirls this year?' referred to recent
polemics on Berlusconi's tendency to candidate young attractive women
for his Popolo delle Liberta party.
There were also hints at a divorce that Berlusconi's wife has
asked for, with a banner linking the marital crisis to that of the
team.
La Repubblica, which has often been been critic of the prime
minister, wrote that accusing him of not spending for Milan 'is a
colossal idiocy.'
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