Soccer players or guines pigs? The denunciation of Carlo Petrini

Carlo moved to Albufeira, Portugal, far from everything and everyone, taken by remorse and guilt began to write a book, a book about his life, but which concerned in particular his career as a footballer, made up of ups and downs, of good and bad people, but which is born with presupposition of denouncing all scandals, lies, frauds and so on which in his opinion were ruining the wonderful world that was that of football.

Petrini in his book tells of how football worked, of how matches were combined for the convenience of the teams, of how players, bookmakers, clubs took advantage of their dirty bets on pre-established results; speaks of tax fraud committed by companies, of agreements made between coaches, players and referees.

The book, however, places a particular emphasis on doping substances and on the experiments that were done on footballers, these were given injections and infusions of various types; they didn't even know what it was, but above all of the repercussions that they would cause in their bodies.

The "guinea pigs", initially unaware of everything, over time and various events concerning the effects that those substances caused (as in the cases of Emmerich Tarabocchia, Bruno Beatrice and many others), became aware of what they were capable of, nevertheless few of the footballers of that time refused to be subjected to those treatments.

This was partly because if they were rejected, their football careers would probably be concluded, or at least in the highest series, in part to the fact that indeed their performances on the field improved considerably compared to normal conditions; this was also since it was not easy to compete with opposing teams that did the same and finally it was also since the players felt somehow protected by the various coaches and team doctors, who introduced him to such substances as harmless, not harmful to health in such a way as to reassure them.

Carlo in his book tells of how a little boy whose dream was to play football e become the best, initially he was on the right track, but he was in somehow hijacked by the corruption, greed and hypocrisy of society, not only football, but society as a whole. [...]