Quella in programma lunedì sarà una sfida particolare anche per quanto riguarda i due presidenti, che si trovano in rapporti non idilliaci
Three more days and then Torino returns. A longer than usual break for the granata, who in their last match before the break had taken the field on Saturday and will now instead be engaged on Monday, after a full 16 days. Vanoli’s team is due a far from trivial challenge, against an important opponent against Lazio, which in recent years has become almost a real rival. Not so much because of historical issues as more because of the relationship between presidents Cairo and Lotito, who in the past have repeatedly been the protagonists of squabbles that have gone viral.
Come tutto è iniziato
So close, so far away. Cairo and Lotito are two quite similar presidents (or owners), united by the fact that they are almost always challenged by the fans. Their modus operandi is practically the same, but this is not enough to unite them character-wise. This is demonstrated by the many discussions they have had over the years, specifically starting in 2019. In December of that year, for example, the two had almost come to blows during discussions to elect the new president of the Serie A League. A few months later, on the other hand, the Biancocelesti president went so far as to sue Cairo’s Gazzetta dello Sport accusing it of publishing a defamatory article against him.
Il caso tamponi
It was in the Covid era that the relationship soured the most, especially for two very specific reasons: first, the postponement of Lazio-Torino due to the outbreak that had hit the Granata team in those days, despite the fact that Lotito had tried to have the match played. Then, instead, also the complaint submitted to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office by Cairo and related to the tampon case, which later led to Lotito being sentenced to a year’s inhibition.
Il caso Ricci-Casadei
More recently, however, objects of debate have been the two granata players Ricci and Casadei. The latter was long disputed in the winter by the two teams, only to choose Toro and be “dumped” by Fabiani, Lazio’s sporting director and Lotito’s right-hand man. As for the current granata captain, however, the biancoceleste president just over a month ago declared, “Rovella is worth a hundred times Ricci, not only from a sporting point of view, but also as a person”; a gratuitous and unfounded attack, to which Cairo replied, “Lotito and Fabiani for Ricci and Casadei make like the fox and the grapes….”
Urbano Cairo,
