Updated news about the Scandal [DO NOT POST COMMENTS] (6 Viewers)

[ReBeL]

$102m wiped off Juve shares



PROSECUTORS questioned the Juventus official at the centre of Italy's match-fixing scandal overnight.

And trading in the Serie champion's shares were suspended after they slumped for the fourth consecutive day. Luciano Moggi, who resigned as general manager of Juventus on Sunday, spent seven hours facing questions from prosecutors investigating the telephone taps that have rocked Italian football.

"It was calm and without bitterness," said Moggi's lawyer, Fulvio Gianaria.

"There was a general discussion for half of the time and then we examined individual incidents."

Moggi features heavily in the published telephone intercepts that prompted Naples prosecutors to place 41 people under investigation, including referees as well as club and federation officials.

In the taps, Moggi discussed refereeing appointments with top football federation officials, and in one case bragged of locking a referee in his changing room after a game.

The scandal, which overshadowed Juve's title win on Sunday, has wiped about 62 million euros ($102 million), or 23 percent, off Juve's market worth in the last week, putting the company's value today at around 209 million euros ($350 million).

Milan's bourse stepped in with measures to limit declines in shares of Juventus, after continuing headlines over the club prompted a slump that triggered their suspension.

Juve's second successive title, the 29th in its history, may be only provisional due to various legal probes.

AC Milan, owned by outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Rome club Lazio and Fiorentina, owned by Diego Della Valle, head of luxury shoe maker Tod's, are the three other clubs linked to the investigation.

The affair also overshadowed the announcement of Italy's World Cup squad, but coach Marcello Lippi said he is sure the national side will not be affected by the investigations.

"Italy will give a great impression of itself at the World Cup from a technical and moral point of view," said former Juventus coach Lippi.

The Italian Olympic Committee will today decide whether to appoint an emergency administrator to run the football federation until a new leadership is elected.

Former AC Milan and Italy player Gianni Rivera, now a centre-left politician, has emerged as an early favourite for the post.

Rivera, who has rarely seen eye-to-eye with Berlusconi, has already won the backing of leftist Rome mayor Walter Veltroni, who said: "He is the right man for the job."

Agence France-Presse
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,19151979-23210,00.html?from=rss

 

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[ReBeL]

Italy under pressure to show red card to match-fixers



ROME (AFP) - With the world watching closely, Italian football is under intense pressure to put its house in order after the latest scandal to bring shame on the country's favourite sport.

Rome-based writer Paddy Agnew, who has followed Serie A for 20 years and has just written a book about Italian football entitled 'Forza Italia', believes strong action must be taken if the 'calcio' is to restore its battered image.

"If Juventus, Italy's most successful and most prestigious club, has been cheating, then they must pay," Agnew told AFP.

"If the federation do punish them, they will send out a strong signal. You're talking about the biggest corruption scandal in Italian football since the Second World War - it's monstrous.

"There's been too much in the media and there will be vicious pressure from FIFA and UEFA. It's not just about Serie A, it's about the Champions League, European championships, the World Cup.

"If you want to play in the world game, then you have got to meet certain standards. UEFA will be looking at Italian football and they will see a product in decline. Poor stadiums, the deterioration of fan behaviour and scandals. That can't continue, because football is so international."

Agnew said the state investigation is likely to run and run, possibly for several years, while the sports judiciary will have to act more quickly.

"There are two tracks. The state judicial track, which will be slow, and the sports judicial, which will be relatively quick. When I say quick, I mean before the start of next season."

Italian media have reported that the 2006-07 season may be put back to October to allow more time to resolve the situation.

Agnew believes there is hope for Italian football if the authorities come down hard on the offenders.

"This is a great opportunity to clean up a lot of things," he said.

"They also have to redivide the financial cake. At the moment there is no collective bargaining. The big clubs have all the say.

"If the championship was more even, then people like Moggi wouldn't be able to entrench themselves in power and take control."

AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060516/sp_wl_afp/fblitascandal_060516001435

 

[ReBeL]

Italian FA under emergency rule



The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has been placed under administration in a response to the match-fixing scandal that has stunned the country.

Former senator Guido Rossi was named on Tuesday as "extraordinary commissioner" of the beleaguered governing body.

The 75-year-old Rossi is expected to introduce a raft of new legislation to clean up Italian football's reputation.

Rossi, a sports law expert, was previously in charge of the Italian stock market's regulator Consob.

His appointment follows a week that has seen FIGC president Franco Carraro and vice-president Innocenzo Mazzini resign amid allegations that the governing body had allowed Juve to pick and choose referees for their games.

And on Sunday Juve's general manager Luciano Moggi, the man at the centre of the scandal, quit ahead of his grilling by prosecutors in Rome on Monday.

The Italian media on Tuesday published further intercepted telephone conversations between Moggi and football officials.

But the most damning involved calls between the Juve boss and outgoing Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu.

According to the transcripts, Moggi tried to pressure the politician to allow games to go ahead despite the imminent death of Pope John Paul II.

Juventus, who are owned by the powerful Agnelli family that also controls car manufacturer Fiat, were scheduled to play against a Fiorentina team that had two players suspended and two others injured. The game was postponed when the pope died.

In an earlier call, Pisanu asked Moggi to help third-division Torres, a club based in Pisanu's native Sardinia.

On Tuesday Pisanu expressed his annoyance that wiretaps "of no penal relevance" had been published and said: "I've known Luciano Moggi for 40 years and I don't have anything to hide about my relationship with him."

As well as Juventus, leading clubs AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio are also being investigated for alleged match-fixing and the manipulation of referee assignments.

Among those called to give evidence in Rome on Tuesday are AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti, Inter coach Roberto Mancini, Serie A president Adriano Galliani and former referee Pierluigi Collina. The four are not under investigation but are being interviewed as "persons who may have knowledge of events".

And magistrates in Naples have launched a related investigation into illegal betting.

This probe is concentrating on the possible rigging of 20 games two seasons ago - all but one in Serie A. Among the 41 people under investigation is Juve and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/4985738.stm

 

[ReBeL]

Juventus board to meet on May 19



MILAN, May 16 (Reuters) - Italian champions Juventus, whose entire board quit last week over match-fixing allegations, called directors to meet again on May 19 and said the head of its majority shareholder would take a key role.

In a statement, the Serie A soccer club, which clinched this season's title on Sunday, said Carlo Sant'Albano, chief executive officer of Ifil, would take on 'specific management powers' at the board meeting.

Ifil is the holding company of the Agnelli family and has a 62 percent stake in Juventus, according to data from bourse regulator Consob.

Juventus said the board meeting would also 'update the situation on company business.'

A spokesman said the entire board would meet because all the directors had given up specific roles through resigning. A shareholders' meeting scheduled for June 29 should decide on a new board.

Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, whose intercepted telephone conversations triggered the scandal, was questioned by prosecutors in Rome on Monday.

The investigation has hammered Juventus' shares which have been suspended for excessive losses for most trading this week. The shares have theoretically slumped nearly 40 percent since Wednesday, wiping 109 million euros ($139.6 million) off the company's value.

Newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore has said that if Juventus were demoted to Serie B it could lose 120 million euros in sponsorship and television rights.

Reuters

 

[ReBeL]

New Juve look to Baldini


Juventus have handed the reins of the club to Carlo Sant’Albano, while ex-Roma man Franco Baldini admits he could take over.

“A shareholders’ meeting has been called for May 19, in which there will be an update on the club’s operation and to hand power of administration to Carlo Sant’Albano,” read a statement.

Born in Torino in 1964, Sant’Albano spent most of his life abroad in Colombia, Brazil, Scotland and the US.

He has been the director general of Ifil Investments Spa – the financial company run by the Agnelli family and which controls Juventus – since February 2006.

The move was made necessary after the entire Board of Directors resigned in the wake of the scandal over intercepted telephone calls and alleged match fixing.

It’s now reported that Juve will revamp the club next season with the arrival of former Roma director of sport Franco Baldini.

“Will I join the Bianconeri? Maybe yes, maybe no,” said the ex-Giallorossi transfer guru when he was questioned by journalists.

The scandal over alleged collusion with referees has shaken the calcio world to the core and today Giulio Rossi was named as the temporary head of the Federation.

“What we have here is a great opportunity to wipe out the current leaders and start again, but even that won’t be enough unless we change the rules,” added Baldini.

“We all have to take a step back, because the problem is that even the best of us were involved, if not by actively taking part, then at least by turning the other cheek.”

Juventus may have just celebrated their 29th Scudetto, but with the investigation on-going and legal threats of anything from docked points to relegation hanging over them, the share prices are plummeting by 17.6 per cent and were suspended from trading this morning due to excessive losses.

Channel4

 

[ReBeL]

The club's market capitalization has fallen by 20% in the past week, wiping out $75 million in equity value from a club that we ranked the 6th on our most recent ranking of the world's most valuable soccer clubs at $687 million.

http://www.forbes.com/facesscan/200...cer-cx_pm_0516autofacescan05.html?partner=rss

 

[Jem83]

Maybe yes maybe no eh?

Well he does look rather unsure

 

[ReBeL]

INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE IN ITALY


On Tuesday more famous names appeared before investigators although they are not under suspicion themselves.

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti and Internazionale coach Roberto Mancini were interviewed by Naples magistrates in Rome.

Ancelotti was quizzed for an hour and 40 minutes as "a person acquainted with the facts" - in effect as a witness.

After Ancelotti finished his testimony, Mancini was next to be questioned.

Listed to testify later are retired referee Pierluigi Collina and AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani, who is in charge of the day-to-day running of the club owned by outgoing Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Collina, Galliani, Ancelotti and Mancini were being interviewed only as witnesses.

http://www.sportinglife.com/footbal...ational_feed/06/05/16/SOCCER_Ita-Scandal.html

 

[ReBeL]

Match-Fixing is not always Italian



Here is a list of major soccer match-fixing scandals in recent months:

GERMANY - German referee Robert Hoyzer, who admitted fixing matches, was sentenced to two years and five months in prison last November for his role in the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit the country in more than 30 years. Hoyzer and another referee, Dominik Marks, were found guilty of rigging games in return for payment from Ante Sapina, the Croatian ringleader of a two million euro ($2.34 million) betting fraud. Former Bundesliga player Steffen Karl was convicted of accepting money from Sapina to throw matches and received a nine-month suspended sentence.

BELGIUM - Five Belgian clubs are under police investigation along with many officials, players and individuals connected with the game. The probe began after internet betting exchange Betfair logged heavy betting patterns relating to La Louviere's 3-1 win over St Truiden on Oct. 29, 2005. Both clubs have denied any involvement. The Belgian FA launched their own match-fixing investigation in February after a programme by Flemish national broadcaster VRT alleged seven first division matches this season were fixed.

AUSTRIA - Austrian police are investigating two alleged attempts at match rigging involving the coach of first division Sturm Graz and one of the team's players. Coach Michael Petrovic and striker Bojan Filipovic are accused of accepting bribes from a Germany-based gambling syndicate in return for trying to throw the league matches against Salzburg and Austria Vienna. Both deny any wrongdoing.

CZECH REPUBLIC - Seven referees and three officials were convicted in January of giving and taking bribes to fix the matches of first division team Synot, now called Slovacko, in the 2003/2004 season. Ivan Hornik, the sporting director of Czech soccer club Viktoria Zizkov received a suspended seven-month sentence in March and was fined 900,000 Czech crowns ($37,690) for offering bribes to referees and soccer officials.

GREECE - Croatian Sapina, convicted of involvement in match-fixing in Germany, has been charged with fraud in connection with a UEFA Cup tie in Greece in 2004. UEFA, European soccer's governing body, launched a probe in late 2004 into the Panionios-Dinamo Tbilisi match, which Panionios won 5-2 after trailing 1-0 at halftime. British betting companies at the time noted unusually heavy betting on such a scenario, prompting the investigation. While UEFA officially never closed the investigation, it has not announced any findings.

VIETNAM - Vietnamese police have filed criminal charges against six footballers accused of fixing a match against Myanmar at the Southeast Asian Games in 2005. State media said two of the players had confessed to agreeing to ensure Vietnam beat Myanmar by no more than one goal in the group stage match, allowing bookmakers to offer attractive odds on the country winning by more than a goal. Vietnam beat Myanmar 1-0 but lost to Thailand in the final held in the Philippines.

Reuters

 

[ReBeL]

Juve at home in Serie B surroundings



The weekend's final round of games had a surreal air, with clubs reasonably secure in the knowledge that the standings will soon have to be rewritten anyway.

It's over, and it's only just begun. Juventus wrapped up scudetto No29 with a 2-0 win over Reggina on Sunday. The game was played on neutral ground at Bari following trouble at Reggina's last home match, allowing the Turin giants to celebrate in front of 50,000 ecstatic southern fans. Many of these supporters had queued for hours for what, given that Bari play in Serie B, looked a rare chance to see the Old Lady up close. Given the way things are currently going, they and the rest of Italy's second division may soon be seeing a lot more of the old girl.

One of the strangest stories yet to emerge from the phone tapping scandal - the thousands of pages of recordings of Juve general manager Luciano Moggi and his allies discussing their manipulation of Italian football - features Moggi boasting of locking one of Italy's most senior referees and his linesman in their dressing room after a rare Juventus defeat last year.

"I locked them in, and I took away the key," sniggers Luciano on his phone. "They'll have to break the door down!" "If I reported the incident," referee Gianluca Paparesta now comments, "they'd have run me out of the game." As fate would have it, Paparesta came face to face with Moggi again this Sunday as fourth official for the game in Bari. This time there was no question who's running out who.

Moggi has had to resign at Juve and is facing charges ranging from intimidation to kidnapping and criminal conspiracy. Juventus meanwhile stand accused of sporting fraud, as beneficiaries of what police have dubbed the "Moggi System". This consists of assigning friendly referees for Juve games, finding unfriendly ones for their rivals, and making sure future opponents were "softened up" with judicious use of the red card.

Juve aren't facing the music alone, however. Nine referees stand accused of being Moggi's foot soldiers. They include Massimo De Sanctis, who the Italian FA have now withdrawn from the World Cup. Forty-one people in total are being investigated, including senior officials at two other Serie A clubs, Lazio and Fiorentina, both of whose phone transcripts appear to show them "signing up" for the Moggi System. They and Juventus now stand a real chance of being relegated.

Sounds grim but at a guess, the worst is yet to come. Moggi, who broke press silence for the first time on Sunday to declare amid tears "They've murdered my soul!", will begin interrogation by police in Naples today. So far the spread of this scandal has been based on last year's phone transcripts, but what happens when Moggi decides to tell his version of the story? Stand by for Luciano to name as many names as possible because, with the evidence against him looking incontrovertible, he's expected to paint himself as just a small shark in a very dirty ocean.

Frankly there's no telling what accusations may emerge in the next few weeks. This weekend's final round of games therefore had a surreal air, as clubs competed for the two prizes left on offer - the title and the fourth Champions League place - reasonably secure in the knowledge that the standings will soon have to be rewritten anyway. For what it's worth, Fiorentina's 2-0 win at Chievo (featuring Luca Toni's 31st goal of the season) saw them tie up fourth place, which should see them enter the Champions League alongside Juve, Milan and Inter next season. Should. Roma, Lazio and Chievo should go into the Uefa Cup, and Messina, Lecce and Treviso should be relegated.

But who knows? Depending on the outcome of the investigations, Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and possibly even Milan could be penalised or relegated. This means the current eighth-placed finishers Palermo, who are currently facing the Intertoto Cup this August, could be involved in the Champions League instead.

All very exciting. Of course, the chances of the various investigations being settled by August are slimmer than Nicole Ritchie, what with the likely appeals and such. How next season can begin on schedule (on August 27) is anyone's guess, as we likely still won't know by then who should be in it. One possibility is that Serie A might actually return to the 18-team format enjoyed until two years ago, when another summer of scandal forced them to fit in two more clubs.

If so, it would be just one of the many plusses the upcoming summer might bring. And, bleak as the picture may be for the Italian game right now, there is in fact a tantalising vista on the other side of the next few months. A vista of a Serie A championship where the big clubs don't always get the better bounce of the ball, where outsiders (hey, even Inter) stand a chance just like in the old days, where whoever wins, we're quite sure it was because they had the better line-up, and not the bigger Rolodex. Pie in the sky? Maybe, but starting again from scratch is a rare and exhilarating opportunity for any league. For Serie A, it could prove the greatest blessing ever.

James Richardson
Guardian.co.uk
Tuesday May 16, 2006

 

[Bjerknes]

Thread made sticky.

Please post every article about the scandals here, don't post any comment, only the updated news.

It's really hard to find the news in other threads, you will see one updated news, and 50 comments.

So keep this one only for news and articles about the scandal so that every member here will be updated of what's going on ..

Don't Comment! only post the articles.

 

[ReBeL]

Soccer TV host resigns amid scandal in Italy


ROME (AP) — The host of Italy's most popular soccer show has resigned amid allegations that he collaborated with Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi to boost the club's image.

Italian media published excerpts of intercepted phone conversations indicating Moggi allegedly pressured TV host Aldo Biscardi to favor Juventus. Fan phone-in polls were manipulated to favor Juventus, according to the transcripts.

Biscardi was host of Trial, a show that analyzed soccer matches, for 26 years. He said he decided to leave because of "all that is happening in the soccer world."

Monday's show was the last of the season. Biscardi had planned to host a similar program during next month's World Cup in Germany, but those plans are now uncertain.

Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/europe/2006-05-17-italy-scandal_x.htm?csp=34

 

[ReBeL]

Prosecutors plan fight to clean up Italian football



ROME (AFP) - Prosecutors from Rome and Turin met their counterparts in Naples to agree on a way forward in their fight against corruption in Italian football.

Magistrates from the three cities met in southern Italy to coordinate their efforts as they step up their investigations into alleged match-fixing in Serie A.

Forty-one people, including club directors, Italian football federation officials and referees are being investigated in Naples where prosecutors are studying intercepted telephone conversations from 2004.

Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio are suspected of match-fixing in the 2004-05 season.

Rome magistrates are looking into the dealings of sports agents GEA, who are run by Alessandro Moggi, son of Juventus' former general manager Luciano, the man at the centre of the match-fixing scandal.

GEA are accused of unfair competition with the use of threats and violence.

Turin prosecutors are investigating the alleged falsifying of accounts by Juventus in the sale of Matteo Brighi to Parma in 2002.

Moggi, one of the games most powerful figures, is accused of intimidating referees and trying to influence the outcome of Serie A matches last season.

The match-fixing furore which has stunned the world of football began when Italian newspapers published intercepted telephone conversations.

In these conversations, Moggi tells the head of the referee's association which referees he wants assigned to Juventus matches.

Also implicated are high-ranked Italian football federation officials and several top Italian referees.

AFP

 

[ReBeL]

Moggi used false invoices in Mutu’s transfer



The former General Manager of Juventus Torino club, Luciano Moggi, used false invoices in the transfer of midfielder Adrian Mutu at the Italian club, on Tuesday announced ‘La Stampa’ newspaper. The quoted source mentioned that Moggi used invoices issued by an inexistent company from London, headed up by Francesca Romana Dolazza and Massimo Bassoli, both being detained five days ago, as they had cashed several million EUR from public contributions. Moggi transferred Mutu to Juventus after the Romanian international was fired from Chelsea London, as he was found cocaine positive. Moggi offered a five-year contract to Mutu, although he had been suspended for seven months and had been allowed to play starting late May, 2005.

The former General Manager presented several false invoices to the club, by which he earned millions of EUR, justifying the costs of the “Mutu operation” support. Juventus was not able to transfer Mutu at that time, as the club had no free places for players outside the community. In order to bring the Romanian, Luciano Moggi used a trick, namely he transferred Mutu to Livorno, which had one free place for a player outside the community. After he ended up in Livorno, Mutu was able to be transferred by Juventus, because the regulation of the Italian Football Federation allowed the club from Torino to transfer players outside the community only from Italian clubs.

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=sports&id=20060517-15425

 

[ReBeL]

Italian credibility at risk as overhaul begins



MILAN, May 17 (Reuters) - Italians used to boast their Serie A league was "the most beautiful championship in the world". Now it has become a national embarrassment.

While fans across Europe prepared for the season's showpiece game, Wednesday's Champions League final, in Italy the talk was of magistrates not midfielders and telephone taps not tackles.

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti had hoped to be in Paris for the final. On Tuesday, the man whose team lost to Barcelona in the semi-finals was instead at a Rome police station talking to public prosecutors.

Ancelotti is not under investigation in Italy's probe into allegations of match-fixing, which was prompted by the publication of telephone taps, although 41 others including club officials, referees and Football Federation functionaries are.

Luciano Moggi resigned as general manager of Juventus shortly after they won the league on Sunday. He is at the centre of the affair after transcripts of his conversations with top officials about refereeing appointments were made public.

On Tuesday, Italy's Olympic committee ruled the Football Federation was no longer fit to run its own affairs and appointed Guido Rossi, a 75-year-old professor with no experience in football, as its emergency administrator.

The daily revelations in newspapers have confirmed many long-held suspicions.

"It is like a lover who has suffered from jealousy and then realises that what he had thought all along turned out to be true," said Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti.

Moratti has long complained about referees favouring Juventus during a decade when he invested $400 million in players but failed to win the title.

"This is awful for anyone who has thrown away money, hope and passion. For myself, but also for the fans," he said.

Rossi, the man charged with curing the sickness at the heart of Italian football, faces an unenviable task.

The former head of the stock market regulator has to create new rules and regulations whilst simultaneously ensuring those responsible for the crisis are driven out of the game.

"Football, our sport, needs to regain credibility," said Gianni Petrucci, head of the Olympic committee.

Credibility is the key issue for a championship tainted by allegations of match-fixing and the apparent exposure of a shady network run by Moggi.

The entire board of Juventus, the country's most successful and popular club, have resigned and the club face possible relegation to the second division Serie B and an exile from Europe's lucrative Champions League.

Juventus is traded on the Milan bourse and has lost about 40 percent of its value since last Wednesday.

Demotion could have a worse impact on the club's finances -- big money television contracts, sponsorship deals and merchandising would be hit if the club were found guilty of what Italian law calls 'sporting fraud'.

But the crisis goes well beyond the future of the Turin club.

Officials from AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina are also under investigation along with top referees and the former president of the federation.

The World Cup finals, which start on June 9, might offer some distraction for Italian fans although it is likely that coming months will bring more embarrassment.

Until the investigations are complete, the Federation will be unable to present European soccer's governing body with a final league table for last season and that would cause problems in deciding which teams go into the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

Unless the investigation moves very quickly, there is a risk Italy will not be ready to start next season on time.

"It will be an Italian-style tragedy," said Sergio Campana, head of the Italian players' union.

"I have many doubts about whether the federation investigations will be able to close before August 27 and therefore whether the championship will be able to start on time."

There is no area of Italy's fascination with soccer that has not been affected in some way by the scandal.

On Tuesday, Aldo Biscardi, the bombastic presenter of Italian television's most popular and controversial soccer talk show, stood down from his job after transcripts of his friendly chats with Juve's Moggi were published.

The presenter's show, which scrutinised refereeing mistakes, was called 'Biscardi's Trial'.

Italian football won't be the same without it but there should be no shortage of real trials in the months ahead.

Reuters

 

[ReBeL]

Bet shop boy Kalac not happy at being drawn into gambling scandal



SOCCEROOS goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac has laughed off Italian reports suggesting he may be implicated in the ever-widening domestic football betting scandal, saying: "If I wasn't playing for Milan it would never have made the papers."

The front page of Tuesday's La Gazzetta dello Sport showed a photo of Kalac entering a betting shop - a picture which he says was taken nine months ago by another customer using a camera phone. The newspaper carried the story as part of a report about the gambling controversy, which has torn apart Italian football.

Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi was questioned by prosecutors early this week as a result of intercepted telephone conversations. Magistrates in Naples have placed 41 people under investigation but Kalac's lawyers have told him he is not among them.

"Someone needed to make some money by selling the photo - I went in there to have a bet on the horses, big deal," he said. "There's really nothing to be said. I'm not involved in anything, I've got nothing to hide. The fact is they're turning football upside down in Italy at the moment because of what's going on at Juventus, and I've been caught up in it.

"If I was still playing for Perugia, nobody would care. But because I'm playing for Milan, it's supposed to be a story. I've spoken to my lawyers and they've told me there's nothing to worry about. I don't have to go to court, or anything. It's a bit of a laugh, to be honest. It's not distracting me at all."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/football...ambling-scandal/2006/05/17/1147545391486.html

 

[ReBeL]

Blossoming scandal involves super-club Juventus



Italians love their wine, their pasta and their fast cars, and they're also fond of a good conspiracy theory. In soccer it went like this: Juventus of Turin didn't win every imaginable title because it necessarily had the best players, but because it had the “best” referees who always seemed to make favorable calls at just the right moment.

“Everyone used to talk about this in the bars,” Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini told reporters, “but before there was no proof. Now there is, and I don't know what there is to wait for, see or understand. This is a very serious thing, the most serious ever heard of in the history of world soccer.

“It is no use training, making sacrifices and preparing for the games all week if things have been decided already.”

It hasn't been a good couple years for soccer on the match-fixing front, with the German referee scandal and another involving second-division Italian club Genoa last year alone. But the one currently percolating in Italy, just weeks before the World Cup, could top them all.

Four major clubs, 20 matches and 41 people (including nine referees) are under judicial investigation. Juventus' longtime general manager and its entire board of directors have resigned. So have the president and vice president of Italy's soccer federation. Massimo De Santis, one of two Italian referees scheduled to work the World Cup, has been withdrawn. Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, the starter on the national team, was hauled in by police over the weekend to discuss alleged betting improprieties.

And prosecutors say they're just getting started. In the 1990s you had Tangentopoli, or “Bribesville,” the corruption scandal that rocked Italy and exposed many of its leading politicians. The media already has dubbed this one Calciopoli, calcio being the Italian word for soccer.

It began in the summer of 2004, oddly enough, when prosecutors were investigating allegations that Juventus was administering all variety of banned performance-enhancing substances to its players. Phone taps were authorized, and in the process of listening for evidence of doping, they came across something else even more alarming.

Juventus GM “Lucky” Luciano Moggi, considered the most powerful club official in Italian soccer, was talking with Pierluigi Pairetto about referee assignments. The problem: Pairetto is Italy's chief referee assigner.

Transcripts of the phone conversations were made public recently, complete with juicy morsels such as Moggi asking Pairetto for “good” referees for three upcoming Juventus matches. Or Moggi bragging how, after Reggiana upset Juventus 2-1 on a late penalty kick, he locked the referee and his linesmen in the changing room.

“I gave them all hell,” Moggi allegedly says on the tapes. “Then I locked them in and took away the key.”

Moggi, 68, announced his resignation Sunday night, shortly after Juventus had secured its record 29th Scudetto, as the Serie A title is called.

“As of tonight, soccer is no longer my world,” Moggi said. “Now I will think only about defending myself from all the malice that has been said about me.”

Pairetto, a former referee himself, insists he spoke with many club directors and that, while “some inopportune things” may have been said to Moggi and other Juventus officials, his “good faith cannot be called into question.” But prosecutors say Juventus was “the only club with which he enjoyed such an intense relationship,” noting that Moggi helped Pairetto move to the top of a waiting list for a custom Maserati.

No one has been formally charged, but the public already appears to have reached a verdict. Newspapers are awash with stories about which matches might have been fixed, and shares of Juventus are in a free fall on the Italian stock exchange – so much that trading was twice suspended this week.

With annual revenues of $274 million, Juventus moved up from fifth to fourth this year on the Deloitte Money List of the world's “richest” soccer clubs, trailing only Real Madrid, Manchester United and AC Milan. The traditional penalty for match fixing in Italy is automatic demotion to a lower division, a fate analysts say could cost Juventus $150 million in television and sponsorship packages.

Also under investigation is GEA World, the sports agency firm run by Moggi's son that represents nearly 200 players. Yet another probe is looking into illegal gambling and reportedly involves Buffon, who was named to Italy's World Cup roster on Monday, and three former Juventus players.

It is a catastrophic development for an Italian national team that many rated as Brazil's stiffest challenge in Germany, given the media frenzy that will now greet them and the inevitable distraction of a corruption scandal unfolding back home. It is good news, in a morbid sort of way, for the U.S. team, which faces Italy on June 17 in Kaiserslautern.

Yesterday a former stock market regulator, Guido Rossi, was appointed to take over the beleaguered Italian soccer federation.

“I wish him luck,” Gianni Petrucci, the head of Italy's sports ministry said at a news conferences. “He will need it. Soccer, our sport, needs to regain credibility.”

By Mark Zeigler
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 17, 2006
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/soccer/20060517-9999-lz1s17fix.html

 

[ReBeL]

The coach of Brescia, Zdenek Zeman stated that the last 12 championships in Italy were arranged , the reaction of Czech coach coming after the scandal where the only responsible is considered to be the former general manager of Juventus Torino, Luciano Moggi. “I think we should rewrite the 12 editions of the championship. All the disclosures are based on just one season, however the previous editions were no different. There are no evidences or phone interceptions, but this phenomenon started long time before,” stated Zeman for ‘Corriere della Sera’. Zeman thinks Moggi is not the only guilty person in this scandal.

“I think Moggi is responsible, however there are also others who should pay, as he was not the only one to decide. At this moment, the situation is rather difficult, but we have the chance to take advantage of this moment, to change the system provided that they really want to change it,” said the Czech coach.

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=sports&id=20060518-15427

 

[ReBeL]

Italy's Obsession Is Dealt a Swift Kick



ROME — Soccer in Italy is nothing short of a religion.

It demands reverence and adulation. It reflects power and symbolizes status. Players are national idols, and clubs are the prized possessions of the nation's billionaire elite.

But a scandal that widens each day has tarnished the glory of Italian soccer, engulfing the sport and its beloved participants in shame. And all just days ahead of the World Cup, which starts June 9 in Germany.

What began as a referee-tampering case involving Juventus, Italy's most storied team, and its general manager, Luciano "Lucky Luciano" Moggi, has mushroomed into the worst Italian sports scandal in at least a generation.

Italians are horrified — but not altogether surprised. Soccer fans, especially those who root for clubs other than the dominant Juventus, have long harbored suspicions that something fishy was afoot. After every match, the talk in coffee bars and town plazas routinely turned to rulings by certain referees that didn't seem quite right.

"Now the rumors have become a certainty," said Mario Tonucci, a corporate lawyer who has advised sports organizations. "Everybody is damaged."

Tonucci said the corruption ran so deep that it would take a major overhaul of the league to restore credibility to the game. "We need new, pure air," he said.

Everywhere, Italians are talking about little but the unsavory chaos that has befallen their favorite pastime. They have started to compare the scandal to the infamous "clean hands" corruption cases of the early 1990s — so called because the targets and nearly everyone in power were believed to have dirty hands — that toppled the government.

"They have cheated the people and they have betrayed ideals, the worst thing you can do," Federico Pola, 41, who runs a newsstand in central Rome, said angrily.

Massimiliano Lucio, a 27-year-old barman, said, "It is disgusting and unfair for the fans who spend a lot of money." As he slung out cups of espresso and macchiato for a lunch crowd, he concluded, "They are all thieves."

Italian newspapers have filled column after column with reports on the scandal, pushing political news, such as Monday's inauguration of a new national president, to the back pages.

On Sunday, when Juventus won a record 29th Italian league title with its 2-0 defeat of Reggina in the Adriatic city of Bari, some fans booed. Banners at the Bari stadium compared Moggi to legendary Mafia bosses. Sports commentators called it a "poisonous victory" and "the most bitter win."

"What is this victory worth in the marketplace of honor?" asked Editor Carlo Verdelli in a scathing front-page editorial in La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy's hugely popular daily.

Salvatore Napolitano, a journalist who was coauthor of a 2004 book on corruption in Italian soccer, said in an interview that he was not surprised by the scandal, because big business, conflicts of interest and profits have overtaken the spirit of athletics.

"We are in Italy, where the principle of 'recommendations' and 'friendship' replaces the principle of 'competition,' " he said. "Football is the Italian way to wrestling: Everyone knows that it's all exaggerated and false."

The casualties so far in the scandal include referee Massimo De Santis and four linesmen whose credentials to participate in the World Cup are being revoked.

Franco Carraro, president of the Italian soccer federation, is probably the highest-ranking official to fall. His is the organization that allegedly colluded with Moggi to provide sympathetic referees. The federation is conducting its own investigation and has defended Carraro, saying he always followed the rules.

"I feel the weight of what is happening," Carraro told a television interviewer over the weekend, "and for this I feel humiliation and shame."

By Tracy Wilkinson
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...7may17,1,924762.story?coll=la-headlines-world

 

[Tariq]

http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/may18d.html

taken from: Football Italia

Juve raided by tax police Thursday 18 May, 2006

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There is more trouble for Juventus on Thursday after the club’s offices were raided by Italy’s financial police.

The 'Guardia di Finanza’ searched the Bianconeri’s headquarters as part of an investigation into the club’s transfer market manoeuvres.

Turin magistrates have opened a file on the outfit with Antonio Giraudo, the club’s former chief executive, being placed under investigation for alleged false accounting.