Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is once again at the center of a new macho controversy. During the Christmas dinner for AC Monza, the team he chairs and which he led to promotion to Serie A in the summer, he decided that in order to motivate his footballers during this first year in the biggest Italian championship, he would offer them an unusual bonus: "a bus of hookers in the locker room".
“We have found a good coach, friendly and capable of stimulating our boys. I have also given the players extra motivation and I have told them that if we beat Milan, Juve… one of these big clubs, I will send a bus full of prostitutes to the locker room", he assured during his speech, which was applauded and laughed by all present.
The 86-year-old Italian tycoon did not make these comments secretly, but with the microphone in hand and aware of being recorded. Nearby was his current partner, the Forza Italia deputy Marta Fascina, whom she is 53 years older, who was waiting for the end of the speech sitting at the presidential table. Together they celebrated a "symbolic wedding" this year, without the obligations of a legal union, given their children's concerns about the inheritance.
Berlusconi bought Monza in 2018 and last season he achieved his highest goal, promotion to Serie A, the highest category of Italian football, something that had not been achieved for 110 years.
The Forza Italia leader sacked Giovanni Stroppa in September, and the results with Raffaele Palladino in the dugout have been good. Before the league break due to the World Cup in Qatar, AC Monza had managed to stay away from relegation -which is now 19 points behind- with a record of five wins, one draw and nine losses.
The team faces a difficult return to work, with clashes against Inter and Juve in January, so the manager wanted to motivate the squad with this obscene promise. Inter will visit Monza on January 7, on the second day of the year, and Berslusconi's team will play in Turin on January 29 to close the month.
