When the Inter Milan football team took to the pitch to play a Champions league match against Artmedia Bratislava there was not one Italian footballer in the team; all eleven players were non-Italian and only one, midfielder Figo, came from a European Union country, Portugal. La Padania, the xenophobic-inclined newspaper of the Lega Nord political party was quick to pick up on the fact one of the most famous northern Italian teams is made up of only foreigners. Its outburst has caused debate and controversy. Massimo Moratti, the major shareholder and president of Inter pointed out that protectionism was absurd at such a professional level of football, particularly as many of the Inter foreign players had been with the club for years, some having been selected as junior trainees at least ten years ago. Marco Tronchetti Provera, the president of Italian Telecom and himself an Inter shareholder, expressed the opinion that the multiethnic team was a very good thing in todays world. These two shareholders were not alone in their opinion; every Inter supporter is right behind the foreign team.