Italian football's tangled web

[Mac 10 †]

Italian football's tangled web

The match-fixing scandal which has engulfed Italian football has stunned fans across Europe.

It is an extraordinary tale involving wiretaps, illicit meetings and even allegations of locking referees in dressing rooms.

BBC Sport spoke to Italian sport journalist Giancarlo Galavotti to unravel the tangled web which has shaken Italian football.


WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

Some of the biggest clubs and individuals in Italian football have found themselves at the centre of match-fixing allegations.

The scandal revolves around transcripts of phone taps which appear to show key figures in Italian football putting pressure on referees to favour certain clubs.

The allegations were uncovered as prosecutors investigated doping allegations at Juventus, Italy's most popular and successful club.

That probe, which resulted in club doctor Riccardo Agricola being found guilty of administering drugs to players in the mid-90s, resulted in phone taps being ordered by Turin prosecutors.

As a result, Juventus - winners of their 29th Serie A title on 14 May - have been implicated alongside AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio.

Juventus' general manager Luciano Moggi, who resigned after Juve secured the title, is at the centre of the scandal although he has protested his innocence.

Italian football federation (FIGC) president Franco Carraro and vice-president Innocenzo Mazzini have also resigned and the pair, along with Juventus chairman Antonio Giraudo, are among those under formal investigation.

Galavotti, who writes for Italian daily sport newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, told BBC Sport: "Our sales have rocketed by about 50,000 copies a day since this happened.

"Even old women going to the market in the morning want to read about this. It is astonishing."


WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC ALLEGATIONS?

Prosecutors are investigating Moggi and Giraudo for allegedly detaining referee Gianluca Paparesta and his two assistants in a changing room after Juve's 2-1 loss at Reggina in November 2004.

They are alleged to have berated the officials for not favouring Juve during the game.

In another transcript published by the Italian media, Moggi speaks to Pierluiggi Pairetto, the vice-chairman of Uefa's referees' commission, putting pressure on him to appoint a referee who will be favourable to Juve.
 
And on Tuesday Italian newspapers printed wiretaps of calls Moggi made to government minister Giuseppe Pisanu.

The Juve boss is alleged to have tried to persuade Pisanu to give the go-ahead to games despite the imminent death of Pope John Paul II - Juventus were scheduled to play against Fiorentina, who had two players suspended and two injured.

The game was cancelled when the Pope died and Pisanu, who is alleged to have asked for help for a lower-division team in his local area in return, has angrily denied any wrong-doing.

The troubles for Moggi do not stop there - he is under separate investigations with prosecutors in Naples and Rome looking into illegal gambling and the operation of a management company owned by his son Alessandro.

Meanwhile, Italy and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, still the world's most expensive 'keeper, is being probed over allegations he gambled on matches - strictly forbidden in Italy.


WHO IS LUCIANO MOGGI?
 
Moggi has been with Juventus for 12 years and is one of Italian football's most powerful men.

Galavotti said Moggi had a formidable reputation.

"He has been considered as a sort of godfather of Italian football. When he joined Juventus 12 years ago, he was very sought after," he told BBC Sport.

"Until very recently Inter Milan were hoping to secure his services.

"The power of Moggi was already legendary 12 years ago, although not because of an ability to manipulate referees - that would have been too much.

"But he was considered to be ruler of the transfer market. It was commonly felt there wouldn't be a transfer in Italy without Moggi's consent."


HOW SERIOUS IS THIS?
 
These events could prove even more serious than the events of 1980 when AC Milan and Lazio were demoted to Serie B following an investigation into match-fixing.

Galavotti said: "If it is proven that a club executive was successful in procuring illicit advantages in a match, that would be very serious.

"It might not just be demotion to Serie B - it could be a matter of how many divisions. They could go even below Serie B."

Juventus, who are owned by the powerful Agnelli family that also control car manufacturers Fiat, have qualified for next season's Champions League and Lazio for next season's Uefa Cup but both would be kicked out should the allegations be proven.

That would have a huge financial impact - Juve's shares had fallen by 20% by the time they were suspended on Monday - and there are other implications for Serie A after former senator Guido Rossi was named as "extraordinary commissioner" of the FIGC with emergency powers to reform the game.

Galavotti said: "His powers will be almost absolute. He could decide that next season's Serie A could be 16 teams instead of 20.

"Also, people say the state of Italian football is such that it is virtually impossible for the next season to start in August. Some say it will start as late as October."


HOW HAVE PEOPLE REACTED?
 
Needless to say, fans, media and even those who do not normally follow football have been stunned.

Galavotti said: "I would compare it to the fall of the fascist regime in Italy. When it fell, everybody was more or less compromised, because it could not have stood in power for 20 years by itself.

"People would not admit to being fascist, but they were concealing or pretending that they never were, switching sides with alarming ease.

"There are plenty who are saying that nothing has been proven and nobody has been indicted of anything yet.

"Moggi and Giraudo say they are victims and that things will be clarified to show just how innocent they are.

"But the gut feeling among the vast majority of Italians is that this is scandal the likes of which there hasn't been before, at least in European football."

[Bomb-A®]

its going down...its messed up

despite what many people might say, juve doesnt need to do all this to win matches



peace

[Antonio_]

I'm patiently waiting for the result of the investigations. Then i'll ask everybody who's saying Juve fixed some games to apologize.

[Mac 10 †]

I'm patiently waiting for the result of the investigations. Then i'll ask everybody who's saying Juve fixed some games to apologize.

You're really not concerned about all this?

[Antonio_]

I'm patiently waiting for the result of the investigations. Then i'll ask everybody who's saying Juve fixed some games to apologize.

You're really not concerned about all this?

Like i told you all..

Some quick news from Italy..

- Inter and AC Milan are investigated for fixing balances of their clubs.
- Fiorentina is in big problems too, for having paid to win the last games of Serie A two years ago (he finished at 1 point from going to Serie B)
- Lazio is fucked up. Berlusconi and Galliani helped owner Lotito to illegally save the club. Nesta went to AC Milan that year.
- Roma is in troubles. They found that Roma owner changed Nakata's antidoping tests with Pagotto (2nd GK). Pagotto was not doped, while Nakata was. But they changed them. NAKATA USED/USES DRUGS, IT'S OFFICIAL. A tribunal just said it, and Roma is about to give Pagotto money back as to refund him.

They "used" Juventus' GM Moggi to make some noise, but those are the big fishes.

More coming soon.... right now it's a WAR here in Italy.

[7even]

That shit's straight up mafia

[Antonio_]

Yeah, it is. The thing they did to Pagotto to "save" Nakata is absurd. That young talentuous GK was been banned for 2 years and from that day he never found a team to play not only in Serie A, but even in Serie C and D. They destroyed him as a man and as a GK. To save the 25m € transfer of Nakata from Perugia to AS Roma.

In 1998 Milan and Inter switched some players from the Youth Team. They both overpaid them 10-12m of € per player, just to fix balances. It's a proven fact.

There are phone calls where Fiorentina's GM buys some games to save his team from Serie B.
MOGGI HAS NEVER BOUGHT A MATCH!! THERE ARE NO CALLS TO PROVE IT.

Same with Berlusconi saving Lazio to get Nesta (for half the price Inter and Juventus were offering Lazio).
(or Parma to get Gilardino)

It's all Mafia, you're right.

But that's the reason why i DON'T ACCEPT THE MEDIA BLAMING ONLY LUCIANO MOGGI AND JUVENTUS..

At the end of the day, like i said, there's NOTHING against us. It's just that we're the best team in Italy, and people is jealous. But by blaming us, they made a Katrina!! FUCK THEM. Read the article: the guy is saying Gazzetta dello Sport (our most important sportal newspeaper) increased sales for more than 50,000 units. Here it is. They did it only by blaming Moggi. But now the end is coming to the light, and the whole Italian Serie A is fucked up. They destroyed the toy just to blame Juventus. And they did the same with the doping trial: tell that animal from Gazzetta who made the quoted article in the first post that a judge said JUVENTUS HAS NEVER DOPED PLAYERS. It took 7 fucking years for him to say so, but at the end of the day we're 101% INNOCENT AND WE NEVER DOPED A SINGLE FUCKING PLAYER. Certified by 7 years of investigations.

[Intriago33]

I'm patiently waiting for the result of the investigations. Then i'll ask everybody who's saying Juve fixed some games to apologize.

You're really not concerned about all this?

- Fiorentina is in big problems too, for having paid to win the last games of Serie A two years ago (he finished at 1 point from going to Serie B)

this bothers me the most. This shit put us in the relegation play-off vs B-ologna.

Parma-Juventus games over the years have never been short of sceptical refereeing desicions, but I won't dig into that. But I will say this season- the penalty Vieira won, was non-existant, and even worse Corradi was manhandled to the floor by Cannavaro, seconds later, which was surely a certain penalty, and nothing was given.

I'm not getting inolved in this too much, it's too much stressing waiting on Parma's situation, let alone the whole leagues problems.

[Antonio_]

What about last year, with Bovo touching the ball in his area and De Santis not giving us a penalty? C'mon..

P.S. You know more than me that, being a Parma fan, you're the last one in the Universe who can say a single word about anybody. Your team should have been deleted from soccer.

[KURUPTION-81]

Antonio can u go into a bit more detail on the Nakata situation as ive never heard about this.

[Intriago33]

What about last year, with Bovo touching the ball in his area and De Santis not giving us a penalty? C'mon..

P.S. You know more than me that, being a Parma fan, you're the last one in the Universe who can say a single word about anybody. Your team should have been deleted from soccer.

Maybe we should be extinct, I don't deny that, but there's a difference from being bankrupt, than to the allegations that are being made against your club.

I wondered why we got so fucked in the game vs Lecce last season, let's look at the facts:

- De Santis was the ref.
- 6 Parma players picked up bookings, Morfeo saw red in injury time for merely kicking the ball away.

the amount of players who were absent from our first-leg against Bologna, it's suprising that we only lost by a goal.

[Antonio_]

What about last year, with Bovo touching the ball in his area and De Santis not giving us a penalty? C'mon..

P.S. You know more than me that, being a Parma fan, you're the last one in the Universe who can say a single word about anybody. Your team should have been deleted from soccer.

Maybe we should be extinct, I don't deny that, but there's a difference from being bankrupt, than to the allegations that are being made against your club.

I wondered why we got so fucked in the game vs Lecce last season, let's look at the facts:

- De Santis was the ref.
- 6 Parma players picked up bookings, Morfeo saw red in injury time for merely kicking the ball away.

the amount of players who were absent from our first-leg against Bologna, it's suprising that we only lost by a goal.

And the connection with Juventus?
Last season we have a 0-1-2 record with De Santis as our ref. So?

[Antonio_]

Antonio can u go into a bit more detail on the Nakata situation as ive never heard about this.

Just a moment, let me try to write it in english.. It's kinda complicated.

[Intriago33]

What about last year, with Bovo touching the ball in his area and De Santis not giving us a penalty? C'mon..

P.S. You know more than me that, being a Parma fan, you're the last one in the Universe who can say a single word about anybody. Your team should have been deleted from soccer.

Maybe we should be extinct, I don't deny that, but there's a difference from being bankrupt, than to the allegations that are being made against your club.

I wondered why we got so fucked in the game vs Lecce last season, let's look at the facts:

- De Santis was the ref.
- 6 Parma players picked up bookings, Morfeo saw red in injury time for merely kicking the ball away.

the amount of players who were absent from our first-leg against Bologna, it's suprising that we only lost by a goal.

And the connection with Juventus?
Last season we have a 0-1-2 record with De Santis as our ref. So?

well if Fiorentina have "booked" the game, then they needed Parma to slip up. A coincidence? I don't think so.
isn't this the same De Santis who has been dropped from the World Cup?

I would be seriously fucked if this proves to be correct, if we was playing in B now.

Like I said, i'm not gonna dig into the mess too deep, as I was on vacation when it blew up, so I haven't followed it as much as yourself. Got enough dealing with new ownership, to care about other teams problems.

[Antonio_]

Antonio can u go into a bit more detail on the Nakata situation as ive never heard about this.

Ok. Premise: sorry for my english.
Premise n.2: what i'm saying is not speculation, but it's what a judge said investigating about it. Official.

In 2000 Nakata used drugs. Geronzi, the boss of Capitalia, one of the biggest bank in Italy, was the owner of both Perugia team and AS Roma team. Both the teams were so full of debts that they had to sold more than half of the team to this bank. To make it short, to fix the balances of both the teams, Geronzi chosed to acquire Nakata from Perugia to AS Roma for the record deal of 25m € (c'mon, Nakata was good, but 25m €? LMAO). Before the trade was made, Nakata had to make antidoping tests. But since he used drugs, and everybody in Perugia knew it, they changed the results of his test with the ones of another Perugia player, the young GK Pagotto (Italian U21, a promising player if you ask me). The next day Pagotto was condamned to a 2 years ban for having abused of drugs, while Nakata's test was ok. Nakata moved to Roma. There, he didnt play enought cause he was the 4th extracommunitarian player in the team, and they could have used only 3 in the pitch. But, 3 days before the crucial match between Juventus and Roma (something like a "final" match, between the two teams: who wins is the Serie A champion, you know what i mean?), somebody in the federation changed the rule, and Roma was allowed to play with 4 extracommunitarian. Nakata played. Nakata scored. AS Roma won the Serie A title.

Pagotto (the young GK) has always called himself innocent, a victim. He blamed AS Roma and Perugia. And now a judge has finally make justice, by proving both the teams fixed the test results to "save" Nakata. The guy who scored the Championship-goal.

And then Juventus is the one who cheated..........