Italians wine bill leaves bitter taste in China(1)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Serie A teams Inter Milan and Lazio acted like tourists and drank wine worth more than $10,000 when they were in China last week for the Italian Super Cup, local media reported on Wednesday.
Champions Inter lost 2-1 to Italian Cup winners Lazio in the season curtain-raiser played in front of 70,000 fans at the Bird's Nest stadium on Saturday night.
Although moving the match from Italy to China was a success, the behaviour of the clubs fell below the standards the organisers expected of their guests.
"The two teams from Italy were just like two luxury tourist groups," Wang Bo, who looked after the teams on behalf of organisers United Vanson International, told the Beijing News.
"Just on wine, they ran up a bill of 70,000 yuan ($10,240)," he added. "They were extremely inconsiderate, they didn't think about anybody else's needs at all."
When contacted by Reuters on Wednesday, Vanson spokesman Ma Jian said Wang's comments were made in passing to the reporter and did not represent the company's official position.
Wang's complaints compound the impression that the trip was a public relations disaster for Inter and their coach Jose Mourinho in particular.
The Beijing News, one of the Chinese capital's best-selling newspapers, had a particular grievance with Mourinho after he lambasted their reporter in the post-match press conference.
