Fiorentina director Joe Barone again blasted La Gazzetta dello Sport for ‘mortifying Italian-Americans with the classic stereotyping we’ve been fighting all our lives’ after President Rocco Commisso’s row.
The match with Napoli kicks off at 11.30 UK time (10.30 GMT), click here for the line-ups and LIVEBLOG.
Fiorentina director Joe Barone again blasted La Gazzetta dello Sport for ‘mortifying Italian-Americans with the classic stereotyping we’ve been fighting all our lives’ after President Rocco Commisso’s row.
The match with Napoli kicks off at 11.30 UK time (10.30 GMT), click here for the line-ups and LIVEBLOG.
The pre-match build-up was dominated by President Commisso’s furious tirade at reporters, both in a press conference and again in a recorded video on the club website.
“I would like to speak directly to the Gazzetta dello Sport and vice-editor Andrea Di Caro,” Barone told DAZN.
“The Gazzetta dello Sport mortified Italian-Americans with the classic stereotyping that we have been fighting all our lives. We are super proud to be Italian, we have over 18 million Italian-Americans and we have to say the stereotyping they created around someone like Rocco Commisso, who brought made in Italy to America from nothing, selling the TV rights to Serie A in America to CBS, this is all something to be very proud of.
“All this behaviour is unacceptable. I am not here to divide north and south, but those of us who went to America from the south – my family from Sicily, Rocco’s from Calabria – deserve respect.”
Fiorentina are already safe from relegation, whereas Napoli need a win to stay in fourth place going into the final round.
“It’s a competition, everyone wants to reach the best results, to finish higher up the table, and we have two games remaining. We haven’t had the best season, but we learned a great deal in the city, we learned from Italian football and have already given a great deal to Italian football abroad.”
Barone was also asked about the crowd of clubs all over Europe clamouring for Dusan Vlahovic after his 21 Serie A goals this season.
“I heard Valcareggi joke that it’s like having a beautiful wife who everyone covets. Vlahovic is a Fiorentina player, he has a contract and we are talking. We’ll meet at the end of the season.”