Big Story
The treatment of Inter’s Mario Balotelli by Juventus fans is headline news again as they ignored an open plea from their president to restrain their offensive abuse on Sunday. In the English-language press, everyone is tip-toeing around the racism word.

In the Guardian, Paolo Bandini tells us that Juve fans kept up “an almost constant chorus” of “if you jump Balotelli dies”. Bandini simply presents Juve’s fans assertion that they are not racist and moves on.

At Football Italia, Susy Campanale takes it to the other extreme, blaming Balotelli for the fans behaviour and reducing the threat of racism to just another annoying issue of modern football: “The Juventus fans held up a banner during the match that read: ‘Don’t kid yourself Balotelli, you’d annoy us even if you were white.’ It’s pretty difficult to disagree with them after this sorry performance. Racism must be stamped out of football, but so must play-acting, provocation of opponents and the kind of gamesmanship that has become your bread and butter. This was the perfect opportunity to separate the bigots from the genuine lovers of fair play, but you’ve only united them now in seeing you as the villain. Shame on the racist chants and shame on you, Mario.”

Over at Treasons, Strategems and Spoils, sometime Pitch Invasion contributor Supriya takes Campanale to task for this conflation in an open letter:

Dear Susy,

This is unbelievable. So Juve fans actually bring a banner into the stadium saying YOU WOULD ANNOY US EVEN IF YOU WERE WHITE and you mention it as an aside in a blog that berates Mario for acting like a kid who faces extreme provocation when he goes out to play – which, that’s right, he is! In a match where, according to C4′s own match report, he was not started because they were afraid it would trigger racist chanting? It’s as good as saying ‘…but he provokes it!’ in spite of your neatly-placed caveats.

Why is Mario’s attitude constantly hogging the focus in any discussion about the reactions he faces? Is this how Italy always treats its bratty kids who are good enough to make it to the national team? No. It isn’t. The Tottis and Chiellinis – and even the Cassanos – of the world haven’t confused people the way Mario does. Come on. Basic decency goes beyond acknowledging what is right, it’s about doing what is right. Shame on you, Ms Campanale. And shame on you, Juve, for sending open letters to your hate-mongering fans when you should be locking them out of your matches.

Please read the rest of her thoughts, and I’ll be interested to see Campanale’s response.

Worldwide News

• A couple of days ago,we featured a photo of Aberdeen’s Red Ultras, Britain’s first ultras group founded ten years ago. Two Hundred Percent has an excellent piece on the slowly growing ultras movement in Britain, and the attempt by fans to reclaim the matchday experience in increasingly plastic settings. More on this later, as I’ll try to annoy English fans by suggesting a thing or two they could learn on how to do this from — gasp — Major League Soccer.
• How not to inspire confidence in your new fans: Christian Gross pops up at a big club again, taking over at Stuttgart immedialy after Markus Babbel’s departure by “mutual consent”, with the inspiring statement that “I am here to save what is left to save.” Honigstein’s weekly piece has an excellent take on what happened to Babbel and the crisis the club faces, as a dream year turned into a nightmare, with Babbel rightly criticising fans who had attacked the team bus and lamenting that “We’ve had two 19-year-old players on the pitch today and they were scared. Even so-called football millionaires don’t deserve to be threatened with murder and to be confronted with all this naked, angry hate.”
• It’s a big 2010 ahead for Adidas, who have unsurprisingly struggled with slow sales this year, but who are banking on the World Cup to revive their fortunes. This piece in the Oregonian has some interesting details on the fierce battle between Nike and Adidas for sponsorship rights, with the former quadrupling the latter’s previous deal with France.Their approach to the American market is discussed in some detail, with some commentary on their MLS deal: $150m over ten years for sponsorship of the league, though curiously,  even though Adidas does not sponsor the professional women’s league here (WPS is not mentioned at all), the article cites the female market as critical to the company in the U.S.

The Sweeper appears every weekday, and once at the weekend. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

Big Story

Last season, Juventus were forced to play a game behind closed doors after fans racially abused Inter’s Mario Balotelli. On Saturday, Balotelli was abused again — this time by Cagliari fans — and the match went on, a decision criticised after by both Massimo Moratti, President of Inter, and by Italian Footballers Association president Sergio Campana. Campana believed the referee should have stopped the game, saying “Faced with this type of behaviour, referees should suspend the match, something which did not happen in Cagliari. In these cases the rules are very clear. Suspension of matches are part of the rules and rules have to be respected.”

Unfortunately, the referee can only do this if the official in charge of public safety at the stadium orders it and this is conveyed to the referee.  It would work better if this is a two-way process, as the referees (especially the fourth official) are best-placed to notice racial abuse of a player: they should be able to take the initiative to abandon a game.

Meanwhile, Cagliari president Massimo Cellino — who was not even at the game — has claimed the abuse was not because of Balotelli’s race. “It’s wrong to take the whistles and interpret them wrongly,” he said to Sky Sport 24. “It was just a small episode that should not be made more important than it is. In Cagliari people aren’t racist.” Many Cagliari fans have taken this tack, claiming the abuse was because of his personality.

If the authorities conclude otherwise, they should ensure precedent is followed from last season and force Cagliari to play behind closed doors as well as beef up the ability of referees to take prompt action.

Worldwide News

• Turns out the MLS Cup final isn’t a bigger draw for network television than Desperate Housewives: due to its primetime spot, Disney are putting MLS Cup on ESPN instead of ABC this year, the SportsBusiness Journal reports. It’s not news the game is on a Sunday night, and ESPN is hardly Mun2, so all the fuss about this seems a little overblown.
• Ronaldinho has denied reports he’s to quit the game. The Brazilian’s decline hasn’t had the dramatic serious substance-abuse drama of Maradona, Best or Gascoigne, but in its own way, his story in footballing terms is just as sad: a decline based on malaise and money cutting in its prime one of the sport’s greatest ever talents.
• Adidas and Puma have finally ended their feud! Meanwhile, Adidas extended their major sponsorship deal with UEFA through 2017.
• A touch of trouble broke out in Australia’s A-League, between fans of the Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United. The Roar points out just how minimal it was, but offers the familiar warning that just the whiff of violence could turn off the general public in Australia.
• It’s about time: the Football League have finally announced they are investigating the takeover of Notts County. We pointed out many weeks ago that the mystery behind the financing of the club needed to be solved by authorities.
• Which top flight European team has had the most disappointing start to the season?  It simply has to be Hertha Berlin, in title contention last season but now humiliatingly rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.