Vittorio Sanna, journalist and writer, for the rossoblù fans “the voice of Cagliari”. In his thirty-year career he has covered over 700 matches in radio commentary, almost 600 in Serie A. One of the most accredited Cagliari historians
Private only, public and private, public only. The game of three cards in Cagliari has now lasted 28 years. I was young, 1996, when a beautiful model of a new stadium was presented in a pavilion at the Cagliari Fair. President Massimo Cellino. He too was young, very young to be a president. Then he dialogued with the public power which changed too quickly: sometimes it is right-wing and sometimes left-wing. They last much less than a bureaucratic procedure, pending debts, an electoral program, the time of promises and, as if we were the ancient island of Ithaca, Penelope wove the web during the day and then unraveled it during the night. I don’t know if we are waiting for Ulysses to return.
One thing is certain to build a stadium, we have been traveling far and wide for some time, knocking on doors, laying the foundation stones, collecting drawings and developing images. Prospectuses and programs, presentations and smiles, promises from sailors under the eyes of Bonaria who looks at the never calm sea of relations between public and private. The only private individual has come of age. In 18 years of management he has tried everything, he even ran for the right, however taking part in the Festival dell’Unità I don’t remember if before or after: let’s redo Sant’Elia, let’s move it to Sestu which with the final “u” was not elegant, near Elmas airport, construction troubles, even a survey in Terralba, proposal in Assemini, blitz in Quartu after the exodus to Trieste. Arrested.
But the problem was not just the private sector. It was the challenge, even aggressive, provocative, humiliating for the public. The flamingos woke up, the archaeologists rebelled, the sirens turned on, the handcuffs went off. For a stadium that doesn’t exist yet, or that perhaps exists but somewhere else, parked in front of the Sant’Elia, old and decrepit, sad and discouraging.
Costly rubble. It is impossible for the public alone to take charge of it, the private sector is afraid, the public does not give up the power to do, in order to still be able to decide, every four years, a few to build a stadium, for a practice that passes from right to left, from bottom to top, from region to municipality. The stadium isn’t there. Or rather, it needs to be dismantled and then redone. There is camped in siege to the new one that will come. He has already been baptized, he has the name but not the light. The balance is not found, the ball is played horizontally or backwards.
Nobody sinks for fear of being discovered and caught on the counterattack. There is a beautiful song by Piero Marras born out of a political hope linked to sport. In place of Godot, Gigi Riva. Will the stadium be there? Perhaps. When Gigi Riva returns. It will be Christmas three times and even priests will be able to get married but only at a certain age. Who knows, the year to come.