This is about club vs. country, sure, but it's also about ego, personality, pride and men who won't back down. You pray that it won't become about lawyers and courtrooms, though, because that would be beyond depressing for a proud football nation already embarrassed about missing out on the past two World Cups (and about stinking it up by getting knocked out in the group stages in the two before that).
Right now, the situation is straightforward, if absurd.
In 24 days, Italy, the defending European champions, will play qualifying games for Euro 2024 and, since Roberto Mancini's sudden resignation on Sunday, there is no national team coach to lead the team or pick the players. The Italian FA wants to appoint Luciano Spalletti, who led Napoli to the Serie A title and the Champions' League quarterfinal last year. He's currently "on sabbatical" and would be honoured to take the job ... except for him to be allowed to do so, he (or, more realistically, the Italian FA) needs to pay Napoli €3.2 million ($3.5m).
Spalletti doesn't want to pay it, and the Italian FA doesn't want to pay it. Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis won't budge, no matter how much folks try to tug at his patriotism or his love for the national team, one of the few institutions -- along with pasta and the Catholic Church -- that unite the country.
So how did we get here?
Everything seemed fine four months ago, when Spalletti was putting on a coaching masterclass and Napoli were romping to their first league title since the Diego Armando Maradona Era. His contract was expiring at the end of the season, but the club had the option to extend it for another year and it seemed a given that he would sign a new deal with a hefty, and well-deserved, raise.
But just as he was expecting a jovial conversation about a new contract, Spalletti received a terse email from the club. It simply informed him that they had picked up the option on his contract and his deal now ran through 2024. No raise, no new deal. It was likely just a negotiating gambit since Napoli knew full well that enforcing the option year without a raise after the sort of season he had wasn't just tone-deaf, it was counterproductive: No team, in any sport, wants an unhappy coach, because that's a recipe for self-destruction. But Spalletti was genuinely upset. He said he was "tired" and wouldn't return to coach the club.
Gab Marcotti explains why the Serie A title-winning manager is taking a sabbatical at the end of the season from coaching Napoli.
A stubborn man, Spalletti's mind wasn't going to be changed, so Napoli hammered out a deal with him. They wouldn't force him to return, but in exchange, he would have to take a one-year sabbatical from coaching. And if he didn't abide by it and signed with another club without their permission, he would owe them €3.2m in compensation. So Spalletti returned to his 125-acre estate in the Tuscan hills, where he produces olive oil and is surrounded by all sorts of farm animals, from chickens to pigs to donkeys.
(The "country gentleman" thing is real with him, it's not just a schtick: in fact, you can rent one of the cottages on his farm and see for yourself.)
But then Mancini, while enjoying vacation on the Greek island of Mykonos, announced he was quitting. (The second part here is a whole other story, reportedly to do with the former Manchester City boss sensing a lack of support and empathy from the FA. His more cynical critics speculate that there's a fat offer from Saudi Arabia waiting for him, while his supporters insist it's not true; either way, we'll find out soon enough.)
The Italian FA immediately veered towards Spalletti, he gave the green light and plans were afoot to announce him by the end of the week. But then up popped De Laurentiis. He said it was a "matter of principle" and not the "almighty dollar" -- Spalletti had signed paperwork saying he was taking time off and that if he goes back to work for somebody else, he has to pay up. He added that if they can find €3 million after tax (nearly €6m gross) to pay Spalletti for three years, the FA can afford to pay Napoli a million a year for three years to secure his services.
The Italian FA was not expecting this. It argues that the whole reason Spalletti had agreed to the sabbatical and the penalty clause had been inserted was to stop him leaving Napoli for one of their Serie A rivals. The Italian national team is obviously not Napoli's rival, and so they're trying to leverage public opinion to get De Laurentiis to back down.
And thus the "club vs. country" dilemma moves into Italy's public discourse. Caught in the middle are Napoli fans: Do they support their club (and the president who delivered the title) or the national team?
The sad thing is that nobody comes out looking good here.
Not the Italian FA and a portion of the media, depicting De Laurentiis as some kind of unpatriotic Grinch who is putting Spalletti in the deep freeze and possibly denying Italy a chance to defend their European title. Spalletti isn't the only Italian coach out there; if they had kept Mancini happy he wouldn't have resigned and, frankly, Spalletti has a contract, so maybe check it out before offering him the job.
Not De Laurentiis, who helped create this mess with that silly email and whose statement is both crass -- "€3 million is not a lot to Napoli and even less to me"... what, are we supposed to be impressed by your wealth? -- and needlessly preachy with his musings on "the rules of business" and "amateurish attitudes." Yeah, there's the letter of the law and there's also the spirit of the law, but there's something puerile when a grown man hangs on to the former. (The agreement was made to stop Spalletti from joining a rival, which the Italian national team is most definitely not).
And, to some degree, not Spalletti either. If you're walking out on Napoli, after everything you achieved together, because you're exhausted and need a rest, it's scarcely credible that less than three months later, you're suddenly ready to coach again. Why not just say you left because you didn't like the way De Laurentiis treated you? And if you're so excited to manage Italy, why don't you take a pay cut so the Italian FA can pay the penalty in the agreement you signed less than three months ago? After all, you've made more than enough money, and besides, aren't you the country gent who is satisfied with the simple pleasures in life like tending the vineyard and riding your tractor around the farm?
You hope they can come to some common-sense agreement here and it won't go to the lawyers and the courts. The last thing the Italian national team (or Napoli for that matter) needs is a long, drawn-out battle over contracts and penalty clauses. But with hard-headed grown men acting like toddlers, who knows?