Donadoni the Dictator?

By: Francesco | July 17th, 2009

When Roberto Donadoni was the coach of the Italian national team, I think pretty much everyone thought he had the personality of a brick wall. His interviews were always very bland, he never joked around much, and we wondered how he even motivated players in the locker room. But recent news coming out of Napoli’s preseason training camp in Austria is that Donadoni has imposed strict rules on the players and is really coming out of his shell. He has a list of things that you can be fined for, and girls that are in the stands with revealing clothing must be covered up so that they do not distract the players! Donadoni has said in recent interviews that he wants “Maximum sacrifice from every player” and that “I always want every player to be moving on the pitch. Nobody should be standing still.” So maybe Donadoni is finally showing he has a certain personality now that he runs a club team on a day to day basis? List of things you can be fined for after the jump.

Napoli players have to be really careful, you will be fined 50 euro if your boots are left in a place where they are not supposed to be, and the big fine is 2000 euro if you show up 10 minutes late to training. If you are late one minute it will cost you 100 euro, at 5 minutes late the fine is 200 euro, 6-9 minutes late is 500 euro, and as I mentioned it’s 2000 euro if you are 10 minutes late. Cell phones are not supposed to go off during training sessions and when you are with the team and must be put on vibrate or silent. If a phone is heard ringing, the owner of that phone is fined 100 euro. If you choose to answer the phone call, that fine is doubled to 200 euro. You will also be fined 100 euro if you are not wearing attire that is appropriate for a preseason training camp (so basically you just be wearing your training suit at all times). As of now nobody has been fined yet and everyone is following orders.

On to the curious story about girls wearing “revealing clothing” in the stands. It’s true, at Napoli’s training camp, girl fans that are wearing revealing clothing are not allowed in the stands. Shorts and Tank Tops are not allowed, so basically it’s like they have to dress like they are visiting the Vatican. Three girls have been given trouble already. One was wearing a tank top and a Napoli official told her to sit in the second row, but then told her that if she didn’t cover up she had to leave. So she was given a Napoli sweatshirt to wear and was allowed to stay. Two other girls were given trouble the past couple of days, one for wearing really short shorts, and the other for wearing a shirt with a really low neckline. Apparently the players would be distracted by this and therefore these rules are strictly imposed.