Antonio Sbardella is certainly one of the people behind the 1974 Lazio scudetto. Hated and loved by fans, at times a scapegoat, he had a long relationship with the Biancocelesti. But he must also be remembered as one of the best Italian referees of all time.
Born in Palestrina near Rome on October 17, 1925, he started his life in football as a goalkeeper in the Lazio youth teams. He had to stop playing following a serious injury. “A stroke of luck” he called it as he decided to become a referee. He refereed 167 Serie A games and 70 international matches. The highlight of his career was in Mexico for the 1970 World Cup where he was referee for two games: Peru-Bulgaria and the third-place final between West Germany and Uruguay. He would have probably refereed the final but Italy got there first.
He was also referee for two Coppa Italia finals and the 1967 Fairs Cup final between Leeds United and Dinamo Zagreb.
Once he retired as a referee he was called by Umberto Lenzini to be sporting director for Lazio. It was 1971 and the club had just been relegated and was going through a difficult time due to the tensions between Lenzini and the manager Juan Carlos Lorenzo which had marred the previous season. Sbardella chose Tommaso Maestrelli as new head coach, forced Giorgio Chinaglia, who had asked to leave, to stay and began buying players that could be functional to Maestrelli’s idea of football.
In the summer of 1971 in came two fundamental players: Gigi Martini, left winger who Maestrelli would transform into a left back, and Giancarlo Oddi, magnificent man-marker returning from a loan to Massese. Also important was Claudio Bandoni, an experienced goalkeeper. Lazio obtained second place and promotion.
There was still work to do to complete the team so Sbardella in the summer of 1972 sacrificed Giuseppe Massa, sold to Inter in exchange for Mario Frustalupi plus money. With the money he bought Luciano Re Cecconi, Sergio Petrelli, Felice Pulici and Renzo Garlaschelli, all virtual unknowns. The first year in Serie A Lazio almost won the scudetto playing beautiful football. The second, with the inclusion of youngster Vincenzo D’Amico, they won the league for the first time. A masterpiece.
Sbardella had had clashes with Lenzini and Maestrelli (he thought that they were too friendly with the team) during the years, and he had backed a group led by advisor Riccardo Riva to take over the club. Lenzini was not pleased and Sbardella resigned in 1974. He was not present at the celebrations since he had left earlier. Roma President Gaetano Anzalone offered him a job which he accepted, but he stayed on the wrong side of the Tiber just a few months due to internal hostility and the fact that his restructuring plan for the club was dropped.
After working briefly for Triestina as CEO, he returned to Lazio in 1981 as general manager first and then sporting director. He stayed until 1983. It was not a happy period for Lazio, in Serie B, and he had numerous power clashes with Luciano Moggi who was sporting director when he arrived.
He was regional Commissioner for the Lazio region in the Referee Association from 1978 to 1983, director of the Amateur 5-a-side association from 1989 to 1992 and Lazio Regional Football President for ten years.
He died in Rome on January 14, 2002.
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