The death of Silvio Berlusconi occasioned mixed emotions across Italy and elsewhere and the obituaries of the 86-year-old politician were full though not fulsome.
I waited with expectation for someone to write about Berlusconi’s transformational rugby activities. There was hardly a word so here are some details from someone who remembers things from back in the day.
Infamous for his bunga-bunga parties and his numerous corruption scandals, the four times Prime Minister of Italy had much to do with the development of rugby union in that country and it could be argued that he was one of the leading figures in the greatest change in the sport from its entirely amateur era to its current Open – mixed professional and amateur – status.
He also paved the way for Italy to become part of the Six Nations, and while his main interest was always making money, it has to be said he seemed to develop a genuine love of the game.
For in the course of his famous career that took him from cruise ship crooner to billionaire media mogul and political leader, Berlusconi made a very telling intervention in Italian rugby.
As part of his ambition to build a global sports brand around the giant football club AC Milan, Berlusconi acquired interests in several sporting organisations, one of which was the Amatori rugby club in the city.
He had bought AC Milan in the summer of 1986, outrageously arriving in the San Siro stadium in three helicopters blaring out the Ride of the Valkyries as per Apocalypse Now. Well on his way to billionaire status and with his tv channels a licence to print money (as was originally said of Scottish Television), Berlusconi threw money at the club, paying for Italian legend Carlo Ancelotti to join from Roma – Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi were already there –- while a trio of Dutchmen soon signed. Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard duly helped Milan win the European Cup in 1989, the former two players each scoring a brace in the final against Steaua Bucharest.
“Now if I can do that for football, why can’t I do the same for rugby?” seems to have been his thinking as he bought up Amatori, the club which had been founded in Milan in 1927 and which had fallen on hard times. Amatori had won 14 Italian league titles, including the first championship in 1929, but was a shadow of its former self.
According to Fabio Capello, the great Italian football manager who was director of all Berlusconi’s sporting activities in the late 1980s, the man who would found the Forza Italiano political party was driven at that time by one ambition – to make Milan the centre of world sport. He set about doing so and flashed the cash at Amatori.
In 1989, Berlusconi caused a sensation when he paid for David Campese to come from Australia to the land of his parents. Campo knew northern Italy well as he and his family had come “home” for 18 months in his teens before returning to Australia.
His fellow Wallabies Tim Gavin and Mark Ella were in the team as were Italian greats such as Diego Dominguez, Massimo Bonomi, and the Cuttitta twins, Marcello and the late Massimo, who would give such good service to Scotland and Edinburgh Rugby and whose name is commemorated in the trophy that Italy and Scotland play for when they meet.
Despite the obvious questions about the amateur status of the Amatori, as happened in other countries players were found jobs that enabled them to train and play almost full time. The system worked, for the Amatori gained notable successes, winning the Italian championship four times in the space of five years from 1991. Young fans began to flock to their matches and many people credit that Amatori team with creating the bedrock of the Italian support today.
The onset of professionalism in 1995 may have convinced Berlusconi that he was going to have to put many more of his millions into the Amatori. He merged the team with Calvisano in 1998 and walked away from rugby.
He had left an indelible mark, however, showing that Italian rugby could thrive. The Six Nations beckoned…
The point about Berlusconi’s brief flirtation with the sport of rugby union is that too many business people, especially in England, have followed his recipe and thrown money at clubs in the sport. None of them had Berlusconi’s riches, however, and club rugby at the elite level in England is paying a hefty price for the vaunting ambition of people who weren’t as rich as they made themselves out to be.
Yet at any time another Berlusconi or a Sheikh of Araby or a Russian oligarch could descend on rugby and invest their billions in a club – which is why I say the sport of rugby union has to reform and keep out chancers like Berlusconi.
