886 Inter Milan call off tour of England

Inter Milan have called off their 4 game tour to England, they were due to be playing Portsmouth, Leicester, Norwich & Crystal Palace. The reasons given were because of the recent spate of terrorist attacks. These attacks have been dreadful, but i feel that this has been a bit over-cautious of Inter, and quite possibly sends out the wrong signals to these evil people who seem to thrive on causing maximum disruption. Views anyone?

Category
Sports

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/24/2005 - 06:31

An overreaction to the recent events in London surely. On that I agree with you.

Nevertheless, I accept that if a British side was to tour in a country that had been subjected to random acts of terrorism just prior to travelling, the same decision may have been arrived at.

Normally speaking the Foreign Office provides definitive advice on travelling to dangerous countries. Presumably the Italian equivalent also offers this advice.

I see Richard Caborn has stepped in to try to get Moratti and Mancini to get the club to change its mind.

For the sake of the 4 clubs that Internazionale were due to play, I sincerely hope that the decision is reversed. Apart from the fans of the clubs involved, Inter have many British supporters who were no doubt eagerly looking forward to seeing their team in action.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/24/2005 - 07:25

It is sad that the tour has been cancelled, however, I am certain that tricky dicky will do everything possible to get himself in front of the cameras and promote his image.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 07/24/2005 - 14:58

It has been confirmed that the tour is going ahead. Apparently, Leicester threatened to sue Inter for loss of gate receipts - not sure whether that had anything to do with the decision.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 07/26/2005 - 04:52

Shame that all the big names were unable [too scared?] to join the tour - Inter's reserves beat Leicester yesterday.

As the BBC put it

"Inter have made the journey to England without 11 of their top players, among them Alvaro Recoba, Edgar Davids and Juan Sebastian Veron"

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 07/26/2005 - 12:53

They evidently were not prepared to risk their top stars for this tour, maybe if they had been playing agains't classier opposition things may have been different. No disrespect to the clubs involved but maybe Inter thought it was just not worth the hassle and the risk of injury to their top stars.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 07/26/2005 - 16:13

Latest is that Edgar Davids has signed for Tottenham on a free transfer so it's likely he wouldn't have been included in the tour anyway.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 07/27/2005 - 11:29

I think a couple more are flying out today.Adriano etc - just in time to play my team (Pompey) on Sunday.Would be great to see Adriano grace the sacred turf of Fratton. Play up Pompey!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 07/28/2005 - 11:17

Inter most certainly did go to UK then, as confirmed by my colleague in Rugby Football Union - based in offices in Loughborough University - when Inter actually used his all weather pitch for a training session. I wonder what shaped balls they used?