Napoli have taken The Guardian to task over an article that mentioned that mentioned them as ‘the club from one of Italy’s mafia strongholds’.
The reference appeared in an article linking the Serie A side with a move for Manchester United’s Danny Wellbeck. Everton and Spurs were also linked to the striker with no description given to London or Liverpool.
Celtic fans have been angered by a number of newspaper stories this week forcing The Scottish Sun into apologising for using a five year old picture in a story about Monday’s Glasgow Cup victory.
Rather than request an apology Napoli issued a club statement about the reference throwing in the comparison that it would be wrong to link Newcastle United with the characters of Geordie Shore!
Showing an excellent grasp of English the Napoli website published a letter sent to The Guardian’s Sports Editor: “Dear Mr Prior, I write to you to ask to publish the following message about an article which appeared on the website of such a prestigious newspaper as the Guardian.
“Napoli sporting director Riccardo Bigon has let Welbeck’s agent know that Napoli are interested in signing up his client, but with Everton and Tottenham also interested, the club from one of Italy’s mafia strongholds will need to make Manchester United and Welbeck himself an offer they can’t refuse.”
I am aware that it can happen that an article is not read carefully before being published. It is possible that as the editor of the Guardian’s sports pages you may not have realised what was written. If not, we would be dismayed to read such a dated, dumb, vulgar cliche as this, linking the city of Naples to the mafia.
“This is an archaic impression that is also rejected by English tourists who every year choose Italy – and Napoli – as their holiday destination. They would not do that if they thought that Naples is Italy’s mafia stronghold, a place where people fire at or rob each other in the street. We would not judge a city like Newcastle on the basis of MTV’s Geordie Shore; we do not think all of that city’s inhabitants are rude, gym-addicted and sociopathic. It is a shame to see the Guardian did not afford Napoli the same courtesy.
“I would still prefer to think that you had not read the article, and in this case, I would ask for a correction, in the name of both Neapolitans and Italians.”
The article has been removed from The Guardian website.