Juventus tainted by fixing scam
UP TO TEN years ago, the Italian Serie A was envied by the rest of the world: not only was it the only place for players such as Zinedine Zidane, Marco van Basten, Paul Gascoigne and Ronaldo to pursue their careers.
Now, with the 2006 World Cup less then a month away, four Serie A clubs, including champions Juventus, find themselves in the most catastrophic situation ever to have engulfed the footballing world. It is a situation which not even the genius of Francis Ford Coppola could have possibly conjured up as a possible storyline for his “Godfather” trilogy, and yet is frighteningly real: a tale involving match-fixing by wire-taps, illegal betting, world-class players facing a lifetime ban, secret meetings and referees locked in dressing rooms.
The first signs of this scandal were uncovered a fortnight ago when prosecutors, whilst investigating allegations of doping made against Juve, uncovered a bewildering number of phone transcripts which contained clear proof of phone taps made by Luciano Moggi, former director of football of Juventus, Italy’s most successful and popular club. Two weeks on from the first discovery of those transcripts, it has been revealed that Moggi manipulated much of Serie A in two ways. First, telephone conversations with Pierluigi Pairetto, the vice-chairman of Uefa’s referees’ commission, reveal that Moggi chose at his pleasure those officials who would referee Juventus’ games and completely vetoed others he didn’t like. In one of the latest to have been uncovered he is heard asking a federation official : “Who the hell was that ref you sent us? I don’t want him to referee ever again for us”.
Secondly, Moggi is alleged to have used GEA World (a football agency run by Moggi’s), to orchestrate football transfers and to influence matches for the past two seasons.
If proven guilty by the Italian Court of Justice and by the Italian FA, two-time European champions Juventus face the prospect of being relegated to the lower divisions. However this scandal also includes three other clubs, namely Fiorentina, Lazio, Siena and AC Milan. The referees concerned is also facing repercussions. Massimo De Santis for example, has been banned from refereeing at the World Cup and several members of law enforcement agencies and executives of the Italian Football Association including the President , have been forced to reseign. Nineteen matches in the 2004-2005 season, twelve of them including Juventus, are being carefully monitored to pick up any suspicious irregularities and “mistakes” in refereeing. One allegation states that some referees were made to book important players from teams that Juventus were due to play.
Moggi is also under investigation for allegedly detaining referee Gianluca Paparesta and his assistants in their changing room in November 2004, after Juve had lost to lowly Reggina, and berating them for not having favoured Juve during the match.
Moggi even attempted to convince the Italian FA to allow a match to go ahead immediatley after the death of the Pope.
The accusations against Moggi don’t stop there, as he is also under investigation for his operation of GEA World and a racket of illegal gambling not only concerning his family, but also referees and many professional Serie A players, including star Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. The final but equally serious accusation involves his close relationship with current Italy coach Marcello Lippi. Moggi is alleged to have influenced his choice of players for the Italy squad, not only by telling him to select only players who were members of GEA but also by encouraging him to leave out Juventus players, so to avoid the risk of them getting injured.
It is almost certain that considering the vast amount of time court trials will take in the summer, Serie A will have to be delayed from August till October, and may include sixteen teams instead of twenty. The other solution, in the event of those clubs concerned being proved guilty of match-fixing, would be for Fiorentina and Juventus to be relegated to a lower division, and for two of the currently relegated teams to stay up. This would result in a complete revolution in the Italian teams participating in Europe next season and would further see Inter Milan made Serie A winners, a title which they have been chasing for years and which could arguably be seen as a reward for playing by the rules.
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