Juventus are angry at Chelsea FC over the club's impending acquisition of hot prospect Lucas Piazon, who turns 18 next January. Chelsea, apparently, have had the gall to offer Piazon a reasonably lucrative contract; somewhere in the region of £17,000 per week, which according to Juventus, is highly unethical behaviour. According to the Mail, Sporting Director Giuseppe Marotta had the following to say about the situation:
We’re actually proud that we haven’t signed Piazon under these conditions. It would have been unethical to pay a minor a salary in the region of €1million (Euros).
What would his future team-mates be thinking? Players who have yet to sign a professional contract.
First of all, Mr. Marotta, that last sentence isn't one. I'll let that slide since it's the Mail quoting you, so it's probably wrong. What I won't let slide is the unethicalness of paying a minor that much money, because a) he's signed a pre-contract agreement and will be joining Chelsea (and thus being paid) when he turns 18 and b) it's completely logically inconsistent to argue that giving a minor a bigger salary is somehow worse than giving him a smaller one. It's a bizarre ramble by the chief of a team that's clearly angry on having lost out in the chase for Piazon's signature.
And I managed to get through that whole post without mentioning the irony of Juventus calling anyone else's behaviour immoral. I should get some sort of prize.
Update: A friendly Juventus blogger has pointed out that the Mail's translation wasn't great and that Marotta wasn't actually attacking Chelsea, which renders this post a little bit pointless. Here you go:
I'm honored to have not signed Piazon to these conditions. It wouldn't have been ethical [for us] to offer a teenager a million euros a year. What would his youth teammates have thought, those that he would have played with, those who have yet to sign a professional contract? It's hypocritical to argue that players earn too much, and then criticize our behavior in this circumstance.