Turone's goal ( it, Il gol di Turone) has been for decades one of the most debated events in the history of Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. It refers to the disallowing of a goal scored by

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

versus

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

in a crucial match for the

1980–81 Serie A The 1980–81 Serie A season was won by Juventus. Teams Como, Pistoiese and Brescia had been promoted from Serie B. Final classification Results Top goalscorers References and sources *''Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898- ...

championship. It occurred during one of the last matches of the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

season when the two teams were, along with Napoli, fighting for the title.

Facts

The event occurred in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

on 10 May 1981 during the match between

and

. At the time, Juventus were topping the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

by one point over second-placed Roma; after that match there would have been just two games each to play. The match turned out to be a tight game, with many fouls and hard tackles from both sides. In the second half Juventus's midfielder

Giuseppe Furino Giuseppe Furino (; born 5 July 1946) is an Italian retired footballer who played as a midfielder. A small yet tenacious and physical player, Furino was nicknamed ''Furia'', and was known for his work-rate and energy in midfield, as well as his a ...

was shown a red card for persistent fouling and sent off. The match still remained tight until 10 minutes before the end when, following a move by

started by Carlo Ancelotti, the sweeper

Maurizio Turone Maurizio Turone (born 27 October 1948 in Varazze) is a retired Italian professional footballer, who played as a defender, usually as a sweeper. Career He played for 10 seasons (227 games, 4 goals) in the Serie A for A.C. Milan, F.C. Catanzaro ...

headed goalwards a ball played to him by the forward

Roberto Pruzzo Roberto Pruzzo (; born 1 April 1955) is an Italian former football player and coach who played as a forward. He represented Italy at UEFA Euro 1980. A prolific goalscorer, Pruzzo was considered one of the best Italian forwards of his generation ...

. The goalkeeper, Dino Zoff, could not save it and it seemed the away team had achieved the 1-0 scoreline that they needed. However, the linesman signaled to the referee, Paolo Bergamo, that Turone was offside and the goal was disallowed; the match eventually ended 0-0. With two games left each of the season, the title was essentially still to play for. Juventus won their next two games: a tough 1-0 victory against Napoli at the notorious

Stadio San Paolo Stadio Diego Armando Maradona (formerly known as Stadio San Paolo) is a stadium in the western Fuorigrotta suburb of Naples, Italy. It is the third largest football stadium in Italy, after Milan's San Siro and Rome's Stadio Olimpico, as well as ...

, and a 1-0 victory against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

. Although Roma beat

Pistoiese Unione Sportiva Pistoiese 1921 is an Italian association football club, based in Pistoia, Tuscany. Currently, Pistoiese plays in Serie D. Originally founded on 21 April 1921 and later restored after bankruptcy, the team plays their home games ...

, they could only manage a draw with

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

on the final day of the season. So Juventus won its 19th Italian League title by two points (44 vs 42). The disallowed goal gave rise to a huge controversy that endures in anti-Juventus circles - such as in the strong rivalry with Roma. The TV images never clarified, in a definitive way, if the player's position was irregular or not. In the following years, conflicting opinions, projections with new technologies and alleged manipulation of

slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use o ...

continued to come in succession; in any case, from then on, the so-called "Turone's goal" remained a hot topic in Italian football for decades to come.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turone's Goal History of football in Italy A.S. Roma Juventus F.C. 1980–81 in Italian football