Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri raged against the new Supercoppa Italiana Final Four format in Riyadh. ‘It’s anything but sport, we just take the money and run.’
It was traditionally a one-off match between the winners of the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia holders in pre-season.
In recent years, it was moved to December or January, often so it could be played abroad in Saudi Arabia.
This time the format is changed to a Final Four, with semi-finals also including the runners-up in Serie A and the Coppa Italia.
When he was asked about it in a press conference following the 1-0 win over Lecce, Sarri joked the reporter was “trying to get me into trouble.
“Everyone knows what I think, that this tournament is about anything other than sport. You take the money and run.
“We take all that we can in this short-sighted manner. We go around the world begging for money. With all the problems that there are with crowded fixture lists, we then set up a four-team Supercoppa.
“If modern football is this type of evolution, then I am glad to be old-fashioned.”
Sarri also commented midweek that he didn’t much care about the Coppa Italia, even if it was a Derby della Capitale against Roma, but his views on the Supercoppa Italiana are even more damning.
“The Supercoppa is a trophy used by a coach to say he won something, it doesn’t help the club to grow. I would like to win something that helps the club too.
“Having said all of that, we are going to travel 6,000km, so we’ll do the best we can.”
Lazio face Inter in the semi-final in Riyadh on Friday evening, after Napoli take on Fiorentina.
Patric went off today with a shoulder issue and Taty Castellanos is out of action.
“It was an old Patric problem with the shoulder that flared up again, but it is a tendon issue, not involving the bones. I hope he won’t need long to recover.
“Castellanos has a small lesion, it will get sorted in 10 days, but he is unlikely to feature in the Supercoppa. I replaced Gustav Isaksen today as a technical decision, he is not hurt.
“Mattia Zaccagni was forced to play with pain-killing injections, his foot is still very swollen and it’s worrying. We hope he can recover in time.”
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