AC Milan Strikes Back at Juventus

It is only natural that the Calciopoli verdict will start new arguments and further rivalries between the Serie A clubs. And the first major "tackle" is about to take place between Juventus and AC Milan. Not a very long time ago - about 4 days ago - the two clubs were fighting together to avoid relegation in Serie B. Now, the two clubs are sitting on different sides, since Juventus was relegated and AC Milan will continue in Serie A. And that seems to have made the Juve officials very angry.

A day after finding out the verdict, Juventus' new director, Marco Tardelli, stated that Milan was favored. "How come all 4 teams are involved in the scandal and only AC Milan gets away with it? It's unjust. I've taken some time to cool down and this still looks like an unbalanced verdict. The right decision was surely to send all the clubs to B without a point deduction. It doesn't seem right to me that Milan could be in the UEFA Cup", said Tardelli on Saturday. And, since a comment like that couldn't have stayed without answer, Juventus responded to Tardelli's accusations yesterday.

"His comments are a mistimed tackle. Perhaps he's still hurting from a certain 6-0 derby defeat. It was the May 11th 2001 and it was probably the day that ended Tardelli's coaching career", said AC Milan's statement that appeared on the club's official website.

The defeat that the statement was referring to took place while Marco Tardelli was offered a job at Inter Milan. While coaching the "nerrazuri", AC Milan crushed his team 6-0 in the Italian Milan derby. It was when Tardelli decided to step off the bench and never had the chance of coaching in Serie A.

Marco Tardelli is one of the former World Champions in 1982, when Italy was beating Germany 3-1 in the World Cup final. Tardelli scored the 3rd goal of the final, ending the game and conquering Italy's 3rd World Cup title in history. Because of his great image inside the Italian football, Tardelli was chosen to be Juventus' new director.