Grande Inter

Grande Inter (Great Inter) is the name given to the Internazionale team led by Helenio Herrera (during the Angelo Moratti presidency) that won back-to-back two European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups in 1964 and 1965. The team have dominated the Italian Serie A during the 1960s when they won three scudetti. Finally, they are also known as the team that brought Catenaccio, a tactical system in football, to a new level.

Helenio Herrera

Helenio Herrera who grew up in Casablanca, Morocco was born in Argentina to Spanish parents and eventually becoming a French citizen, but he was associated with Italian football. He coached FC Barcelona where he won La Liga/Spanish Cup in 1959 and La Liga/Fairs Cup double in 1960 before moving to Italy. Nevertheless, his career in Spain was overshadowed by the dominance of Real Madrid in European Cup.

The beginning

In 1960, Helenio Herrera joined Internazionale from FC Barcelona after falling out with the Catalonian club. From FC Barcelona, he brought his midfield general Luis Suárez who would win the European Footballer of the Year in the same year for his role in FC Barcelona's La Liga/Fairs Cup double. He would transform Internazionale into one of the greatest teams in Europe. He modified a 5-3-2 tactic known as the Verrou (door bolt) to include larger flexibility for counter attacks. The Catenaccio system was invented by an Austrian coach named Karl Rappan. Rappan's original system was implemented with 4 fixed defenders, playing a strict man-to-man marking system, plus a playmaker in the middle of the field who plays the ball together with two midfield wings. Herrera would modify it by adding a fifth defenders, the sweeper or libero behind the two centre backs. The sweeper or libero who acted as the free man would deal with any attackers who went through the two centre backs. Internazionale would finish 3rd in Serie A his first season, 2nd the next year and first in his 3rd season. And then followed a back-to-back European Cup victory in 1964 and 1965. Herrera earned the title "ll Mago" which meant the magician. The code of Herrera's team was the fullbacks Tarcisio Burgnich and Giacinto Facchetti, Armando Picchi the sweeper, Luis Suárez the playmaker, Jair the winger, Mario Corso the left midfielder and Sandro Mazzola who played the inside-right.

1964 European Cup

In 1964, Internazionale reached the Final by beating Borussia Dortmund in the semifinal and FK Partizan in the quarterfinal. In the Final, they met Real Madrid, a team had reached 7 out of the 9 existing Finals. Real Madrid consisted of the aging stars of the 1950s and a few emerging players that would win the European Cup in 1966. It was Sandro Mazzola who stole the show by scoring two goals in a 3-1 victory.

Internazionale lineup: Giuliano Sarti; Tarcisio Burgnich, Giacinto Facchetti; Carlo Tagnin, Aristide Guarneri, Armando Picchi; Jair, Sandro Mazzola, Aurelio Milani, Luis Suárez, Mario Corso

1965 European Cup

A year later, Inter repeated the feat by beating two-time winner SL Benfica in the final held at home. Jair was the lone scorer in 1-0 win.

Internazionale lineup: Giuliano Sarti; Tarcisio Burgnich, Giacinto Facchetti; Gianfranco Bedin, Aristide Guarneri, Armando Picchi; Jair, Sandro Mazzola, Joaquín Peiró, Luis Suárez, Mario Corso

1967 European Cup

By 1967, Jair was gone. Luis Suárez was injured and missed the Final. Sandro Mazzola's penalty was not enough to stop Celtic FC from winning the title.

Controversies

In 2003 the English newspaper The Times published an article by writer Brian Glanville in that Gyorgy Vadas Hungarian referee's confession on a corruption attempt by the club's president, Angelo Moratti, before the second leg of the semi-finals of the 1965-66 European Cup against Madrid CF. Glanville, who also reported similar cases of match-fixing in which were involved some club's officers in the two previous editions of the tournament, in addition, has signed, according to a series called The Years of the Golden Fix, that the club's triumphs during the 1960s "were the fruit of bribery and corruption in which Angelo Moratti played a crucial part in a process implemented by two men also now dead: Deszo Szolti, the Hungarian fixer, and the serpentine Italo Allodi [Inter's sporting director]."

In 2004, in his book Il terzo incomodo, and in an interview to Italian newsmagazine L'espresso on 2005 former Grande Inter footballer Ferruccio Mazzola has made a series of serious accusations related to the systematic use of performance enhancing drugs (mainly amphetamines) in the club during the 1960s Internazionale chairman Massimo Moratti and president Giacinto Facchetti, who was also among those accused by Mazzola to make use of systematic doping in the club, sued him for those declarations. Mazzola finally won the legal case in 2010 and the club have not submitted any appeal.