Inter vs Napoli Throwback: Mazzola’s “Influential” Referee Talk

The ability to influence a referee is a superpower that many top players in Serie A are rumored to have had. For example, football oral traditions narrate of Milan defender Franco Baresi’s legendary “raised arm” to call for an offside – which the referee on duty invariably confirmed.   

Juventus almighty director of sports Luciano Moggi once went as far as “kidnapping” referee Gianluca Paparesta and lock him in a room for several minutes to “punish” him as he believed his decisions had damaged the Bianconeri in a key game. And this is not a rumor. It happened for real.

But stories of episodes where an influential player allegedly used his authority to intimidate a referee and urge him to blow his whistle in a different way go way more back than that.

The race for the 1970/71 title, in particular, is remembered for having been allegedly influenced by a few words that Inter iconic captain Sandro Mazzola exchanged with referee Sergio Gonella at half time of a decisive Inter vs. Napoli game.

During the half time break, with Inter down 0-1 and playing with one man less due to Tarcisio Burgnich’s send off, for decades the calcio chroniclers whispered of Mazzola furiously storming into the referee’s locker room and urging Gonella to “get his s**t together or this is gonna end badly.”

It took about 40 years for Mazzola himself to candidly confirm the episode in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica. But, before hearing his words, let’s take a look at the back story.

On March 26, 1971, Inter welcomed Napoli at the San Siro Stadium with a two-point lead over the Partenopei. Inter were second in the table, one point below city rivals Milan. The Scudetto race was an exciting battle involving all three teams and the Nerazzurri could count themselves lucky for even being part of it.

This was not the Grande Inter of the 1960s anymore. The players that formed its backbone were aging. The coach was still a Herrera, but not the legendary Helenio anymore. This was his namesake Heriberto, a mind-bending tactician from Paraguay who had had better fortunes at Juventus.

He did not last long and was replaced by Giovanni Invernizzi, a former Inter player who promptly made the team bounce back after a staggering league start.    

Napoli, on the other hand, had built their title chances around a rock-solid defense where shone the star of goalkeeper Dino Zoff. When they traveled to Milan, the Partenopei had conceded only 14 goals in 22 games.

Napoli also knew how to attack though, if only because their top striker was Serie A veteran José Altafini. And indeed, it was Altafini to open the scoring in the decisive six-pointer with the Nerazzurri. On 40 minutes, the Italian Brazilian pounced on a Lido Vieri save from an Antonio Juliano header to silence the San Siro and add to Invernizzi’s side woes.

Inter were already livid as they deemed the expulsion of their defensive pillar Burgnich totally undeserved. When they returned to their changing rooms at half time break, tension was about to explode.

Then, something happened. Let’s hear what in Mazzola’s own words:

“During the half time break, while my teammates were still in the locker room, I went to referee Gonella’s room. I burst in and verbally attacked him. I remember I told him that he couldn’t keep refereeing like that, that he was damaging us. I must have used some explicit words whose sense was: either you put your s**t together, or this is gonna end badly for all. For us, because we will lose the game and the title; and for you, because your refereeing will be the main reason for our loss.”

The Inter legend also vividly remembered the referee’s reaction:

“Gonella was shocked. I remember him saying something like ‘Mazzola, get out of here! What are you blabbering about? How dare you!’”  

We don’t know what the effect of Mazzola’s words was, but one thing is for sure. The match trend did change in the second half.

Ten minutes after the restart, Inter were awarded what looked like a pretty generous penalty for a presumed obstruction foul from defender Dino Panzanato on Mazzola himself.

The penalty conversion was also controversial as Nerazzurri striker Roberto Boninsegna clearly halted his run-up before restarting to run and coming up with a shot that somehow deceived a nervous Zoff.

The visitors were so mad now that even the usually cool as a cucumber Zoff lost his head and pretty much gift-wrapped another one to Inter a few minutes later, failing to block a Boninsegna’s twisting header that didn’t seem dangerous at all. Game over. The Scudetto took the path towards the black-and-blue side of Milano for the 11^th time in history, while the Neapolitans would have to wait 15 more years before their title challenge would be successful.   

But was it all due to Mazzola’s sliding-door talk to poor Gonella? (who, by the way, was not exactly a newcomer, but a world-class referee who would eventually direct both a Euro Cup Final (1976) and World Cup Final (1978)

Let’s hear from Mazzola again:

“In retrospect, I probably made Gonella feel so guilty that I ended up influencing his refereeing. But I think we would have won anyway, in that team there were six or seven players who had ruled the world.”

This is how Sandro Mazzola cleverly dribbled the accusation of altering the course of a campionato while at the same time confirming that, yes, perhaps “I did something forbidden by the rules. Something wrong.” At the end of the day, History is always written by the winners.

MATCH SCORECARD

March 21, 1971 – Serie A 1970-71 Round 22
INTER – NAPOLI 2-1

SCORERS: 40′ Altafini (N), 55′ Boninsegna (I, pen.), 58′ Boninsegna (I)