Sia’s Wednesday editorial: Dear Inter, improve on these points for the supporters..

The Italian Inter blog Bausciacafé driven by our friends has brought up some interesting matters on whether Inter really need to change and improve. The text was written because of the many supporters that didn’t get inside of the stadium before the end of the first half, this only because of the long lines to the stadium and also the Italian bureaucrazy. I’ll quote one of the points written on the blog:

And once upon a time being one of those who swore his ass of in Swedish, English, Farsi and whatsoever, before learning Italian and starting to scream blashphemies in that language as well(trust me things are hard in Italian as well), I felt the need to give Inter some more points where they can improve and lets start with the tickets:

* The tessera del tifoso. The tessera del tifoso is needed to buy tickets of the website. Just that the Tessera del tifoso is only available for Italian citizens. So when you make a trip from your country to Milan, you can never be sure whether you’ll be able to buy a ticket or not.  Luckily, the Meazza doesn’t get full many times but since the fans from the far east, the arab world or the rest of Europe tend to want to see the biggest games where the risk exists, we have a problem. Having already payed a great ammount of money for the flight of hotel, many of you(I’ve done it to), have probably payed a very high price to some company or some dude on the street that offers you a ticket just to make sure you can enter the stadium. The question is, whether this money wouldn’t make Inter(and ourselves) more happy. The solution? Well, as always it is hard to admit and I don’t even know why I know this, but Milan has a webpage called “Milan Point Estero”, now only Milanpoint where they help foreign supporters get tickets to all games. You go here apply for the ticket and then pick it out at San Siro at a special desk. How hard could it be?

*Solo Inter. The club did take a step forward when they made tickets available at the Solo Inter store. Just that at many times, magically the Solo Inter ticket system doesn’t work. Luckily, at least at this store the staff often speaks English and can give some help.

*The Meazza. Just like Miss Green explained, finding people who speak English at the Meazza is almost impossible. You have to be really lucky. And since it’s hard both to find your section and where to enter at the stadium things get worse. Before becoming a frequent visitor at the Meazza and picking the same spot every game, I probably spent half an hour to find my section. This is how things whent:

Sia: Excuse me sir, the section 261 where is it?

Unknown guy: “5 minuti a destra”(Just go to the right for five minutes)
Having walked for five minutes I find myself somewhere I think I shouldnt be so I ask again, this time in the little Italian I knew at that time:
Sia: “Scusi, dove->(pointing at the section number on the ticket)
Unknown guy 2: “5 minuti a sinistra”

5 minutes to the other side. God damnit. And the most irritating part is when you find a section number that in all logics should be close to yours, like 262, and 261 is nowhere close to be found.

Solution: HIRE SOME ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE GOD DAMNIT!!!!!!

* The Inter Clubs: This is a matter that I often don’t like to take in public, but it has to be done. All the Inter club material is in Italian. So practically to start an Inter Club outside of Italy, you have to know Italian. And knowing Italian doesn’t mean knowing Italian bureaucrazy(shit is crazy compared to Sweden.) Asking for help, you’re often in contacts with a man who doesn’t know English. Only when the club has been established, you come in contact with Valerio who speaks perfect English(and who is a great lad) and who can help. Though, when you’re in contacts with Valerio, it’s to ask where the hell the Siamo Noi card is, and the rest of the stuff that you’ve actually payed for in your membership. The foreign Inter Clubs often receive their packages(earliest talking) six months late. Which means we can’t be a part of the benefits that we’ve payed for, or get the packages and so on and the privelegiums of creating, establishing and doing the work that we do for Inter outside of Italy. Above that, all of the Inter Club mails that are sent, are of course in Italian. Not only usual Italian, but often with accent and hard words that will be difficult to understand if you’re not a fluent speaker.

Solution: Translate all the documents that are needed to establish an Inter Club in English(I’m not going to give you another milan virus risk, but I swear they have done it), send the most important information to the clubs in English as well(Ticket info and so on) hire some more English speaking people. Btw, did I tell you that the tessera del tifoso is needed to enter the training ground La Pinetina as an Inter Club? And if you remember, yes exactly, if you’re not Italian, there is no tessera del tifoso and guess what.. 1+1=2 so the chance to enter the training ground at Appiano is very small.

*Appiano Gentile. Hey, I wasn’t done with Appiano Gentile. And I wasn’t done with Inter. If you don’t have a car, with a GPS(or some Italian friends that’ll drive you), taking yourself to the Pinetina, or I’ll call it Appiano just to make things simple is a GOD DAMN MESS. First of all, Inter never puts the time of the practice up on their webpage. They just write: “Morning, closed” “Afternoon, closed”.

 So the exact time the training is going to take place is almost never official, which makes things harder. This means you have to go really early to make sure you don’t miss all of your heroes and end up taking your picture with the stewards(who are nice, but I didn’t go there for them). My last experience at Appiano was standing in the rain for about three hours, before being able to go home happy after a photo with Handanovic(who wasn’t happy when I put my arm around his shoulder after three hours of rain).

But ok, this is a minor problem. Imagine a fan from Indonesia who has flied for 24 hours to reach Milan, or me who flied and transfered and all of what it means for a couple of hours just to reach Milan, I could wait a couple of hours to get a glimpse of my heroes. The biggest problem is how to get to Appiano without a car.

Here is how you do it. Take the metro to Cadorna. At Cadorna you need to take the train to Mozzate. Only problem is that the train only leaves once an hour so you risk to miss the whole session since Inter doesn’t put the times on the website. So far, it is quiet easy. Arriving at Mozzate is where the problems start. There is an autobus that’ll take you to the region Appiano Gentile, where there is a sign that shows the Inter logo, and from there it is a 20 minute walk. Also no problems. Just that, there is no ticket counter for the bus at the Mozzate station. And finding the ticket shop is quiet hard to be honest. So you stand there, want to take the bus and there are a couple of options:

1. You risk to miss the bus as you go and try to find the ticket shop, in a small region where no one is likely to speak English or to be able to help you.

2. You play the “No Italiano card”, not being able to speak Italian could sometimes be useful. You enter the bus, drop a couple of euros to the bus driver and as he swears at you in Italian just smile and say “no Italiano”, or even better “No hablo Italiano”, which will probably make them understand.

3. In some magical way there is a woman who drives Taxi in the region who you can call and who’ll pick you up and drive you to/from Appiano for 40 euros. This is what I always do and if you want her number just leave me a mail at siavoush.fallahi@gmail.com. But just remember, if you’ve missed it all you’ve payed for train tickets, taxi and with your time just because Inter won’t put the times up.

Solution: Put some guides up on Inter.it on how to make it to Appiano. PLEASE, just write when the practice starts it would make things easier. This is pure fantasy I know, but have a busline from the centre of Milan-Appiano Gentile that goes 1-2 times a day. In this way, you could make good money and it would make things easier for everyone, especially the fans that do a lot to come see their players.

*Sources of infromation. So I know the journalism is going through a hard time and that there is a crisis going through all of Europe but we could really do well with better English coverage. For example, isn’t there any way to sell Inter Channel to the fans abroad via Internet? We’d gladly pay as we pay for our trips. Because Inter Channel is the best source of information for everyone. Maybe I’m asking for to much know, but in my opinion the information on Inter.it is sometimes very slow in English. It has become better with the use of Facebook and Twitter so I’ll let is pass. But what could be done is at least putting the short summaries of the training sessions up with English subtitles or with English audio. It shouldn’t be that hard and shouldn’t take a lot of time, we are talking about one of the biggest clubs in the world.