Thursday 14 April 2011

Luciano Gaucci - A Tribute to a Madman

Football has seen some extraordinary characters over the years; Italy in particular has treated us to more than a few colourful types, none more so than former Perugia president Luciano Gaucci. Italian football is infamous for corruption and certain presidents of Italian football clubs are notorious for their eccentricity, but Gaucci’s roll of honour tops them all. Here’s a few of his finest moments.

Luciano Gaucci made his money through racehorses - and it was a racehorse which landed him in trouble just two years into his reign as Perugia president. At the end of the 92/93 season, Gaucci’s Perugia had achieved promotion from Serie C1 following a 1-1 draw with Siracusa and a 2-1 play-off win at Foggia. After an investigation, Gaucci was accused of bribing a referee with a racehorse. Consequently, Perugia were relegated back to Serie C1 and Gaucci was banned from football for three years.

Amongst the madness that has surrounded the Italian it’s easy to forget that he has a very good record in the transfer market. He’s plucked players like Fabio Grosso, Fabio Liverani and possibly most notably Marco Materazzi from the lower divisions, who later turned out to be Italy internationals. He also somewhat pioneered ‘tapping into the Asian market’ and found success with the signing of the first Japanese player to play in Italy, Hidetoshi Nakata. However, anybody reading this who knows anything about Luciano Gaucci knew this was coming; in June 2003 his most famous and controversial signing came in the form of Saadi Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Before even playing a single game for the Umbrians, Saadi Gaddafi received a 3-month ban after his urine sample contained traces of the illegal substance nandrolone. The Libyan was better known for his antics off the pitch than on it, including a €392,000 unpaid hotel bill he racked up. Perugia coach Serse Cosmi refused to play Gaddafi despite Gaucci’s insistences. That was until Saadi was handed his chance as a substitute in a game against Juventus where he played 15 minutes. Gaddafi was sold to Udinese and later Sampdoria and amassed a whopping 26 minutes of Italian football.

There was one transfer which eluded Gaucci and that was his attempts to sign an unspecified woman. He said on women footballers: “While most of them are gifted, they are also too small and physically weak to play with the boys. I'd have to find a big girl who is also athletic, maybe 6'3" and 13 and a half stone, and who can learn to play the game.” “Someone like Venus Williams, though obviously not her." Gaucci had previous when it came to breaking the gender divide, in 1999 he appointed the first and only woman, Carolina Morace, as manager of a professional men’s team at one of his other clubs Viterbese, she lasted just three months before falling out with Gaucci and resigning. Gaucci said in his explanation: “She made me employ a fitness trainer, who used to be a PE teacher at secondary school.” He came close to signing a woman on a couple of occasions but never realised his dream.

Another example of him showing initiative in the Asian market was the signing of Ahn Jung-Hwan, and with this came Gaucci’s most infamous display of childishness. Ahn scored the winning goal against Italy in the 2002 world cup thus knocking them out. Gaucci didn’t take too kindly to this ‘behaviour’ and in one of the most petulant actions in the history of football; he terminated Ahn’s contract citing: "He was a phenomenon only when he played against Italy. I am a nationalist and I regard such behaviour not only as an affront to Italian pride but also an offence to a country which two years ago opened its doors to him." "I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer." He later tried to take the comments back but it was too late with Ahn saying: "I will no longer discuss my transfer to Perugia, which attacked my character instead of congratulating me for a goal in the World Cup."

When our favourite president isn’t signing the son of a dictator or inexplicitly sacking people, he might be seen getting into fights, unveiling banners supporting George W. Bush (who he professes to be a close friend of), describing goalkeepers as ‘disabled people’, threatening to sign a horse or threatening to send his players to a 40-day training camp if they don’t win. He frequently criticized players, presidents of other clubs and the authorities of the game publicly and would never hold back on the way he felt towards people.

In 2005 he went to The Dominican Republic as a fugitive after Perugia went into bankruptcy and a warrant was issued for his arrest for his part in a fraud. Prosecutors claimed there was a good 40 million Euros which went missing from the football club’s account and turned up in the accounts of some of Gaucci’s other businesses. That warrant was eventually lifted and he returned to Italy in 2008.

There is absolutely no doubt Luciano Gaucci is one of the most colourful and controversial characters to ever be involved with the sport and amongst the publicity stunts and the losses of temper, he is also very clever and he’s an extremely astute businessman which often gets overlooked. Perugia most definitely increased in stature during his time at the club and he achieved promotion to Serie A. Luciano Gaucci is the type of person English football can only dream about and one thing’s for sure, the game we love is a less stirring place without him.

“Everybody laughed at me when I signed Nakata, so I will enjoy it when I prove everyone wrong. We’ve been trailblazers before, and we’re going to break new ground again.”

- James

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