Roberto Gotta in Italy

According to a survey mentioned in Italian magazine Panorama last month, 46% of Italian parents believe their kids are always right. This becomes especially true, in their warped perspective, when figures of authority, who are not part of an inner circle, attempt to exercise their right to address a child's need to be reprimanded or praised in accordance with how he or she behaves. This leads to parents suing school districts over their kids' bad reports or assaulting those teachers daring to give out poor marks to their beloved offspring, who are obviously misunderstood geniuses whose growth is stunted by unsympathetic educators. This "teacher hates me" attitude, which creates excuses and shifts the blame to those who are in charge instead of the real perpetrators, gets amplified on a nationwide basis and turns into a stream of different, yet common, patterns of behaviour. No matter how poorly employees or students perform, then, the boss - usually the highest paid, so one may say that it comes with the territory - is always the one who takes the blame. However, things are getting out of hand in Italian football.