Why we're wrong to criticize Inter's 'casting call'
Inter fans have been rather bemused at their club’s practices of late.
Whilst the choice of Coach Stefano Pioli has gone down well, the manner in which he was selected has not, prompting some anger over the so-called “casting process” held over a number of days in Milan, where numerous candidates were interviewed by owners Suning.
Not everyone agrees, however: Dino Ruta, the Scientific Director of FIFA’s Master Sport Knowledge Center (part of the Bocconi School of Management) told the Gazzetta dello Sport that these were “growing pains, but necessary evils”.
“Every novelty is not a joke. Inter and Milan’s respective “casting calls” are known as selection processes on the international scene, and are basically a team effort in order to select the best candidate worthy of being entrusted with millions’ worth of assets. Maybe the ways and the timing are wrong, but I get the feeling that both the fans and experts don’t know the investors”.
“Inter and Milan’s recent problems could obfuscate the huge changes which Italian football is undergoing. American, Canadian, Chinese and Indonesian owners have been buying Serie A clubs since 2011. It’s the same thing the Premier League did between 2003 and 2007, generating a championship that is 55% foreign-owned, but also rich and successful.
“The things we’ve seen over the last few weeks could be considered worrying, because we see behaviour that is very different from what we’re used to seeing from Italian owners. Command structures are bigger. It often takes too much time for decisions to travel from their makers to the directors who are supposed to execute them, football needs rhythm and speed in order to take the decision which fans, but especially the players and the manager, consider the best”.
