vcaramazza

Several interesting posts here. I will try to clarify what I meant early. Sorry for my poor English. I believe there are three different points. 1) Fantunes were left out of the IT team, IMO unfairly. To me are the best pair in Europe, others may disagree, but I believe any bridge enthusiast will at least agree that they are at least one of the top five pairs in Europe. I remember in past European championships all the rave was about them, especially about Fantoni, to the point that he was nemed "deep Fantoni", from the software "deep finesse". I have watched again the vugraph of the last Bermuda Bowl and did not notice a bad performance by them, they were simply very unlucky as the opponents called two slam below 50% and made them. 2) Mme Lavazza is a very whealty person and a major sponsor of Italian bridge and probably her position as a representative of the IBF is due to that. There are some positive points about it: maybe Italy has been enjoying such a strong team in recent years because all the money involved allowed champions like BD, VL anfd FN to dedicate totally to the game without any financial worry. Still it seems to me and apparently other that she has somehow abused of her position here in order to get rid of Fantunes and insert a player that is not taken seriously in any way even by its own team mates, as the original poster states here 3) Mr Angelini is also a major sponsor in Italian bridge, and again many thanks to him for that. My main point is that if Mme Lavazza for whatever reason wanted to get rid of Fantunes, there would have been in Italy dozens of pairs able to compete decently in this event, without having their team mates complaining and have them benched out. In the interview linked several times here Mme Lavazza, without been asked, has pointed out "the inclusion of Mr Angelini did not bring any financial advantage to the IBF", which in politishianish means: "Mr Angelini has pay a boat load of money to be here"

Thanks for sympatising. I don't think I have ever seen anything like that in any other team, nor in the Italian team either in the past. That is why I find the whole thing so crazy. BTW I believe most of the poster here are from America, where things work in a very different way. Please allow me to remind that here in old Europe the concept of nation is quite a big deal: when you represent your own national country money should not be involved.

Thanks Mrs Lavazza

I agree entirely in the case of a club competition. The sponsor chooses his/her team and nothing wrong with that. In the European club cup Laavazza and Angelini are the sponsors for two Italian team who have won most of the titles. Mr Angelini has played in one of them along Lauria, Versace and Fantunes. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But in this case we are talking about national teams: the team is called Italy and represents the Italian nation, so every efforts should be made to to field the best possible Italian players. Mistakes in selection can obviously happen, but in this case nodody in the know doubts that Fantoni-Nunes are totally in another league and that Mrs Lavazza was certainly not trying to put together the best team. This team should simply not be named Italy in my opinion. I also would like to know how the team was really chosen, alll I can say is that the whole thing sounds like a big joke to me and not a pleasant one. I am sure that the two Italian main pairs agree with most of the above, but they simply cannot say anything about it

This is my first post but please allow me to strongly disagree. As an Italian living abroad I am really sick of yet another stupid Italian commedy (or melodrama). The Italian bridge team has won I believe 8 European championship in a row head and shoulders above anybody else, to the point where in several occasions there was no point in playing the last to days of the event. It was together with Valentino Rossi one of the reason to be proud of Italy. So what happens next? MT Lavazza (if it was really her decision) decides to dump what in my opinion is the best pair in Europe (many would disagree and it is difficult to pick a best pair against such champions as BD and LV, but in my opinion Fantunes are the best) to insert a guy who is a very big sponsor in Italian bridge, but certainly is not amongst the top 500 players in Italy. It would be as if Berlusconi decided to play center half in the Italian footbell team because he sponsors Milan AC (mind you it could have been better than the way Toni performed). When you say that MT Lavazza has chosen winning teams in the past, that was hardly a difficult task, given that Italy has the three best pairs in Europe. What is extremely remarkable from her is to have managed to struggle in the European championship by making this joke of a choice. Maybe be next time we could have an interesting pair Angelini-Lavazza if women will be allowed, since apparently the Italian Bridge Federation is in such bad financial shape