Anyway, it became like a dispute in that website between Juve fans and Anti-Juve fans...
Here are the new reactions for what the Juventino James Micallef wrote:
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Let's Not Pretend Juve Aren't Dirty Cheats
In response to James Micallef's rant... don't you think its a bit ridiculous to respond to one silly, biased opinion with yet another silly, biased opinion? Poor innocent Juventus, victimised by the courts... yeah f**king right.
"None of the Juventus officials' phone calls intercepted (on which the case against them was built) was even made to a referee or linesman. "
Then who exactly to you think these phone calls were made to then? The players' grandmothers?
Juventus were cleverer than that, the cheating b**tards.
Let them rot down there where they belong and maybe learn a lesson or two.
Ronan Dineen (disliking cheating b**tards and bored at work), Ireland
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...James Micallef makes some interesting points about the outcome of the corruption investigations in Italy and I agree with some of them.
It does stink that AC are still in the Champions League (although, in fairness, that seems to be because Uefa hadn't spotted a bus-sized loophole that meant they couldn't keep them out, rather than any inherent bias) and I wrote in before about how dodgy it was that it seemed to be common knowledge what the punishments would end up being before the clubs had even appealed the initial decision.
What his support from Juve seem to have blinded him to is that, although it may be true that nobody from Juve got caught talking to referees, Moggi was caught talking to the bloke in charge of appointing referees for Juve's games. He didn't need to do anything as crass as talk to the refs themselves because he'd gone one better and
made sure sympathetic refs were going to be appointed.
He tried to get a game against Fiorentina to go ahead despite the Pope's death because Fiorentina had two players out injured and another two suspended.
He locked a referee and his assistants in their room after one game, having berated them for their apparent unfairness to Juve, and wandered off with the key. He was a key figure at Juve and clearly not someone who intended to let things like the rules get in the way of Juve's success.
Also, Juve made it very clear quite early on in the proceedings that they would accept relegation to Serie B which would seem like a strange position for a club wholly innocent of any wrongdoing, as James seems to believe, to adopt wouldn't it?
Ben Smith
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..James Millacef, get a grip.
Juve officials were tape recorded speaking to the head of the Italian referees association and picking their own refs. You state, "There was no proof that Juventus fixed a single match", but picking your own refs, as every fan suspects (even in England), can influence the results of games.
I'll give you two examples.
Firstly, everyone in Italian football knows that Juve are the biggest club and that Luciano Moggi (then general manager) was the most influential individual. If, as has been proved, it is the case that only Moggi-approved refs got to referee Juve games, then it follows that any ref who wanted to get the biggest games (involving Juve obviously) has to stay on his good side. How do they do that? By not giving penalties against Juve, not allowing contentious goals against, or ever giving the benefit of the doubt to the other team.
The refs are ambitious people at the pinnacle of their profession, they don't want to be reffing Lecce v Chievo every week just because they gave Trezeguet offside when it was a 50:50 call. They don't have to throw the game or 'fix' it, they just have to be seen to be fair in the eyes of an extremely biased individual. Hence, Juve get an uncanny run of luck lasting a decade and including at least one highly disputed title due to contentious penalty decisions.
Secondly, for those who think this could only happen in Italy, or that refs are all perfectly neutral, remember Arsenals 50th match in their unbeaten run - against Man U at Old Trafford. I'm not suggesting that there was any impropriety, or that the result was unfair (beyond the obvious incidence of cheating), but in that game the referee, Graham Poll, was changed at the 11th hour to 'Red' Mike Riley, notorious penalty awarder at Old Trafford.
Sure enough, the game turned on a contentious penalty where a 50:50 call was awarded to the home team in a high pressure situation. My point isn't that Riley cheated, I personally think he is just weak when faced with an angry crowd, but that every Gooner I know conceded the game the minute he was selected (after pressure by Alex Ferguson).
Just as Graham Poll is thought to be pro-Arsenal by Chelsea fans with short memories, Riley is held to be pro-Man U. Given that this is the case, wouldn't you want a say in who refs your matches? And if I could guarantee that Riley never reffed Arsenal again, would that not be 'fixing' it for Arsenal to get a better deal, even if my own perception was that it was only levelling the playing field?
Face facts, Juve are cheats. They got hit hardest because they were most culpable and they had profited the most. You are probably right that others have got off lightly, notably Milan, but, as the ManYoo of Italy, there were always going to be plenty of candidates to stick the boot into the 'Old Lady'.
Console yourself with the thought that in a league as corrupt as Italy Juve will probably win Serie B with a miraculous 50 point cushion after a record number of 0:0 draws involving their main rivals and with Collina reffing every game out of retirement.
Max Benjamin, just back from holiday in Italy.
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8744_1415534,00.html