Post by Salem6 on Jul 2, 2006 9:51:51 GMT
Turin, July 1 - The Juventus soccer fans have started their "procession to Turin" to declare their pride in belonging to the black-and-white-striped club. They met at Piazzale Caio Mario in front of the Fiat Mirafiori. The leit motiv of the demonstration is "Juventus is us" and tens of thousands of fans are descending on the town from every part of Italy (organisers say there could be as many as 50,000). Disregarding the torrid heat in Turin at the moment, the proudly Juventus fans will be setting off at 1 p.m. on the dot to go to the headquarters of the soccer team which are in Galileo Ferraris Avenue. This is the same building off which Gianluca Pessotto tried to commit suicide last Tuesday. Today's march will be dedicated to "clean soccer", but also to the former Juventus and national player who has been struggling to survive for the past four days in a bed in the Molinette hospital. Heading the procession of Juventus fans will be a huge banner with the words "Juventus is us", but thousands of black and white banners also read "A great love story". There are also standards, stripes and a huge cut-out of Gianni Agnelli, who for many years now has been chairman of the club with the greatest number of fans, a number approaching 12 million. There are also some big names from the world of show business, music and former players, such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, amongst the thousands lining up. The former player's first thoughts are for Gianluca Pessotto: "I hope he'll be back on his feet as soon as possible. After the procession, I'll definitely go and see him". There's also the singer Paolo Belli at the front of the line-up, with Mariella Scirea, the widow of the former black-and-white-striped captain, and the comedian, Max Pisu, who said, "We're here to be close to Juventus. Justice is equal for everyone, we're just here to be close to Juventu". Massimo Giletti is also there. Paolo Belli said, "It's easy being on the bandwagon with the winners. But you also have to stay there when they lose". (AGI) .
011504 LUG 06
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