Luciano Moggi, Juventus ex-General Director and villain of the Calciopoli scandals (also known as Moggiopoli), will be the major speaker of a conference organized by a secondary school of Agropoli, in Southern Italy.
The subject of the conference seems a good excuse to arouse controversy: sportsmanship. Is Moggi really going to explain to some teenagers why sport is important in everyday life and what are its good values? No, it’s not a joke, it’s true!
“Tomorrow I’ll be resigning, since tonight the football world isn’t my world anymore. I’ll think only to defend myself from all allegations and wicked actions.”
That’s what Luciano Moggi said in a sunny afternoon in Bari just a few minutes after Juventus beat Reggina 2-0 in the most useless game of its dilated and glorious history.
While the Bianconeri players and fans were celebrating a Scudetto that soon would vanish in a puff of FIGC gunpowder, Moggi was just shedding some tears and telling the press his future would be without football.
As Moggi is famous for saying the opposite of what he thinks, people listening to him shouldn’t have believed that emphatic statement. But that day he looked really frustrated and miserable.
After all the Calciopoli developments – Moggi has got a five year ban to serve, you would reckon he’d be in an exotic resort having a rest. Wrong call: he’s alive and kicking and ready to make a brash comeback.
In February he’ll even be – no kidding – teaching the values of sport to the students of a secondary school whose principal is extremely proud of his ability to land a man who, in some eyes, is still very much a role model for success.
“Moggi was just a scapegoat of a system based on corruption,” the headmaster boldly stated, rubbishing suggestions from the press that having Moggi lecture morals would be akin to having Hannibal Lecter lecture on vegetarianism.
That’s an awkward interpretation of what happened at least in the last two years of Italian football, but also a clear sign that the Italian expression “everybody is guilty, nobody is guilty” will never fall into disuse.
Even though it’s true that for judiciary courts he’s still innocent, as a trial hasn’t started yet, it’s undeniable that some football magistrates and judges found Moggi guilty and decided that he should be heavily sanctioned for that.
It was not a coincidence that Juventus got rid of him and Giraudo well before any decision was taken. Mud sticks and the Bianconeri jersey was in danger of being splattered by the fallout from what became Calciopoli.
The Agnelli family realized that after more than a decade it was time to change the management, as its methods of work couldn’t be employed anymore. The old boy network was falling like a row of dominoes and it was time to change or be changed.
But the Fiat owners knew also that keeping Moggi would mean a tougher punishment – maybe even Serie C1, and like any good poker player they threw their hand in before they lost their head.
Anyway, at times Italy can be a funny country, where indignation and outrage can disappear in a short while, being replaced by opposite feelings as indifference or even sympathy.
After his lesson at Agropoli’s school, Moggi will take part to the inauguration of a Juventus club named after him on the outskirts of Salerno (and another four Moggi Juve clubs will open very soon).
But that’s just part of his public life. Moggi is as busy as when he was under contract with the Old Lady . He’s a columnist for Libero, an Italian daily newspaper, and he runs his own radio programme on Kiss Kiss (sic) Network.
Obviously he doesn’t write or talk about astrophysics. As you can imagine his main topic is football, with a particular attention for Inter, a club he could have worked for, according to some rumours. Inter owner Massimo Moratti, though, has always firmly dismissed those rumbings, which, at the moment, Moggi is very happy to harshly criticize.
Moggi, also, was said to have had a few words with AC Milan chairman Silvio Berlusconi as well, as maybe the Italian ex-Prime Minister was to replace Galliani with Big Luciano. It looks like Moggi’s popularity will never fade away.
Who knows? In the future Moggi might even end up as a member of Parliament. That wouldn’t be a big surprise according to Italian standards, porn star La Cicciolina managing to be elected rather than just erected.
But hopefully Moggi will stick to football, possibly using different methods of work. Old dog, new tricks? Leopard, spots?
By Luca Manes
The subject of the conference seems a good excuse to arouse controversy: sportsmanship. Is Moggi really going to explain to some teenagers why sport is important in everyday life and what are its good values? No, it’s not a joke, it’s true!
“Tomorrow I’ll be resigning, since tonight the football world isn’t my world anymore. I’ll think only to defend myself from all allegations and wicked actions.”
That’s what Luciano Moggi said in a sunny afternoon in Bari just a few minutes after Juventus beat Reggina 2-0 in the most useless game of its dilated and glorious history.
While the Bianconeri players and fans were celebrating a Scudetto that soon would vanish in a puff of FIGC gunpowder, Moggi was just shedding some tears and telling the press his future would be without football.
As Moggi is famous for saying the opposite of what he thinks, people listening to him shouldn’t have believed that emphatic statement. But that day he looked really frustrated and miserable.
After all the Calciopoli developments – Moggi has got a five year ban to serve, you would reckon he’d be in an exotic resort having a rest. Wrong call: he’s alive and kicking and ready to make a brash comeback.
In February he’ll even be – no kidding – teaching the values of sport to the students of a secondary school whose principal is extremely proud of his ability to land a man who, in some eyes, is still very much a role model for success.
“Moggi was just a scapegoat of a system based on corruption,” the headmaster boldly stated, rubbishing suggestions from the press that having Moggi lecture morals would be akin to having Hannibal Lecter lecture on vegetarianism.
That’s an awkward interpretation of what happened at least in the last two years of Italian football, but also a clear sign that the Italian expression “everybody is guilty, nobody is guilty” will never fall into disuse.
Even though it’s true that for judiciary courts he’s still innocent, as a trial hasn’t started yet, it’s undeniable that some football magistrates and judges found Moggi guilty and decided that he should be heavily sanctioned for that.
It was not a coincidence that Juventus got rid of him and Giraudo well before any decision was taken. Mud sticks and the Bianconeri jersey was in danger of being splattered by the fallout from what became Calciopoli.
The Agnelli family realized that after more than a decade it was time to change the management, as its methods of work couldn’t be employed anymore. The old boy network was falling like a row of dominoes and it was time to change or be changed.
But the Fiat owners knew also that keeping Moggi would mean a tougher punishment – maybe even Serie C1, and like any good poker player they threw their hand in before they lost their head.
Anyway, at times Italy can be a funny country, where indignation and outrage can disappear in a short while, being replaced by opposite feelings as indifference or even sympathy.
After his lesson at Agropoli’s school, Moggi will take part to the inauguration of a Juventus club named after him on the outskirts of Salerno (and another four Moggi Juve clubs will open very soon).
But that’s just part of his public life. Moggi is as busy as when he was under contract with the Old Lady . He’s a columnist for Libero, an Italian daily newspaper, and he runs his own radio programme on Kiss Kiss (sic) Network.
Obviously he doesn’t write or talk about astrophysics. As you can imagine his main topic is football, with a particular attention for Inter, a club he could have worked for, according to some rumours. Inter owner Massimo Moratti, though, has always firmly dismissed those rumbings, which, at the moment, Moggi is very happy to harshly criticize.
Moggi, also, was said to have had a few words with AC Milan chairman Silvio Berlusconi as well, as maybe the Italian ex-Prime Minister was to replace Galliani with Big Luciano. It looks like Moggi’s popularity will never fade away.
Who knows? In the future Moggi might even end up as a member of Parliament. That wouldn’t be a big surprise according to Italian standards, porn star La Cicciolina managing to be elected rather than just erected.
But hopefully Moggi will stick to football, possibly using different methods of work. Old dog, new tricks? Leopard, spots?
By Luca Manes
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