{"id":697972,"date":"2026-05-27T21:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/697972\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:49:08","slug":"moral-bankrupts-pirlo-and-materazzi-provoke-fury-by-attending-football-day-in-russia-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/697972\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Moral bankrupts\u2019: Pirlo and Materazzi provoke fury by attending \u2018Football Day\u2019 in Russia | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The presence of the Italian World Cup winners Andrea Pirlo and Marco \u00adMaterazzi in Russia for a sports event has sparked outrage. The former players signed autographs and posed for selfies with Kremlin supporters on the day Moscow launched one of its most brutal missile attacks on Kyiv<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pirlo, the former Juventus and Milan midfielder and one of the \u00addefining figures of Italian football is now manager of United FC in Dubai. He was photographed on Sunday alongside the Russia striker Artem Dzyuba<\/a>, during \u201cFootball Day\u201d \u00adcelebrations at Moscow\u2019s Luzhniki Stadium. In March 2022, shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dzyuba, the national side\u2019s former captain, said he was \u201cproud to be Russian\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The event on Sunday featured exhibition matches, autograph \u00adsessions and appearances by former footballers and was organised by Fonbet, \u00adRussia\u2019s largest betting company.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideHow do I sign up for sport breaking news alerts?Show<\/p>\n

In the Guardian app, tap the Profile settings button at the top right, then select Notifications. Turn on sport notifications.<\/p>\n

If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you\u2019re on the most recent version.<\/p>\n

If you don’t have the Guardian app, download it from the\u00a0iOS App Store<\/a>\u00a0on iPhone or the\u00a0Google Play store<\/a>\u00a0on Android by searching for ‘The Guardian’.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Prominent pro-Kremlin artists performed throughout the day, \u00adincluding Yaroslav Dronov \u2013 better known as Shaman \u2013 whose songs have become unofficial anthems of the war.<\/p>\n

Pirlo\u2019s presence reignited \u00adcriticism that first emerged in \u00adOctober, when he signed a deal with \u00adFonbet as a global ambassador. Fonbet announced the partnership on \u00adInstagram, saying: \u201cWe welcome to our team a World Cup champion and two-time Champions League winner. As a global \u00adambassador, the Italian will represent Fonbet in Russia and international\u00a0markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s news.telegraf described Pirlo as the \u201clegendary partner of Ukrainian player Andriy Shevchenko who sold himself to Russia\u201d, and social media reactions were \u00adsimilarly unforgiving. \u201cAndrea Pirlo sold himself to dirty Russian money,\u201d one\u00a0wrote.<\/p>\n

Fonbet, which has murky ownership structures and reported ties to the Russian authorities, operated as Milan\u2019s regional partner in Russia before the club suspended the agreement in 2023 after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, describing the move as a gesture of solidarity with the \u00adUkrainian people.<\/p>\n

Pirlo and Materazzi were in Moscow as Russia launched one of its largest combined drone and missile assaults on Kyiv, targeting civilian infrastructure. Russia used its \u00adpowerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for a third time in Ukraine as part of a massive attack on the capital and its surrounding region that killed at least four people and injured about 100.<\/p>\n

Marco Materazzi (right) challenges Milan\u2019s Andriy Shevchenko, a Ukraine international, while playing for Inter in 2003. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n

Among the fiercest responses was that of the Ukrainian skeleton \u00adathlete Vladyslav Heraskevych<\/a>, who was barred from racing<\/a> in this year\u2019s \u00adWinter Olympic Games after \u00adattempting to compete with a helmet dedicated to Ukraine\u2019s war dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was one of the \u00adlargest Russian attacks, during which 600 drones and 90 missiles were launched at Ukraine,\u2019\u2019 he wrote on\u00a0X. \u201cAlso today, Italian football legend Andrea Pirlo was spotted in Moscow next to Russian footballer Dzyuba, who openly supports the Kremlin\u2019s policy and the killing of Ukrainians. It\u2019s sad to see childhood legends turn into moral bankrupts for whom nothing is more valuable than Russian roubles.\u00a0Shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European parliament vice-president, Pina Picierno, a member of Italy\u2019s Democratic Party, said: \u201cMoney can buy many things. It can even, incredibly, lead a sports \u00adchampion to sign footballs in Moscow at the very same moment that regime is indiscriminately killing civilians and threatening European countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat money cannot buy, however, is credibility, integrity and the ability to stand in the affairs of the world with honour and a straight spine. It is a great shame that Pirlo evidently has not understood these\u00a0things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pirlo defended the visit, saying: \u201cWe came here exclusively for sport and for the children. Football has the unique power to bring people together, to overcome \u00adborders and to offer a moment of joy, \u00adespecially to young kids who dream of becoming\u00a0footballers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur presence in Moscow is linked solely to our passion for the game and to the affection of the fans who have always supported us throughout our\u00a0careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Materazzi said: \u201cWe are here for a celebration of football, to meet the fans and to show that the ball speaks a universal language. Seeing the enth\u00adusiasm of children on the pitch is the only thing that matters to us today. We are not here to do politics, but to honour football and the people who love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy echoes the backlash faced last year by another Italian football hero, Francesco Totti, after he travelled to Moscow<\/a> as a guest of honour at the International RB Award, an event dedicated to sport and betting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a politician or a diplomat, I am a man of sport who promotes its values around the world,\u201d Totti said at the time<\/a>, rejecting accusations that the visit carried political significance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The presence of the Italian World Cup winners Andrea Pirlo and Marco \u00adMaterazzi in Russia for a sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-697972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}