The scandal that turned the Italian soccer world upside down last week sparked the resignation of Juventus General Manager Luciano Moggi and the rest of the board of Turin team, just as the club was dreaming of its 29th scudetto on Sunday. Moggi, 68, one of the most influential figures on the Italian soccer scene, has suddenly found himself in the dead centre of judicial and sporting probes into his business interests. He is suspected of illicit relations with a referee-appointer. A brief statement released after a short meeting said only that the board had ‘handed in its resignation and had convened a shareholders meeting on June 29.’
The board meeting took place a day after judicial sources revealed that Turin prosecutors were probing Juventus CEO Antonio Giraudo for false accounting. The scandal broke with the publication of transcripts of wiretaps ordered by Turin prosecutors as part of a doping probe before and after the start of the 2004/2005 season. In a series of phone calls, Moggi asks referee-appointer Pier Luigi Pairetto to name ‘good’ refs for three preseason friendlies and chats with him about the refs assigned to two Champions League matches. The content of the tapped conversations was explosive as it seemed to confirm Italian fans’ age-old suspicions that the refs favour Juventus.
The publication of the wiretaps coincided with the revelation that Naples and Rome prosecutors have been probing the management company that handles most of Italian player transfers, GEA World. GEA is owned by Moggi’s son Alessandro. The prosecutors are reportedly looking into alleged cases of ‘illegal competition with threats and violence’ and abuse of a ‘dominant position’ on the market. Naples prosecutors, who are also investigating illegal football gambling, suspect that GEA was a ‘system’ or power lobby through which Moggi extended his control over the entire soccer world, judicial sources said on Thursday.
The hullabaloo raised by the publication of the wiretapped conversations has already cost Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) President Franco Carraro his job and has prompted politicians and influential sports commentators to call for a sweeping overhaul of Italian soccer. FIGC Vice President Innocenzo Mazzini resigned on Thursday, following publication of conversations with Moggi in which they discussed the Juventus delegate who would be attending a meeting on refereeing appointments. Referees have been dragged into the scandal because their telephone conversations were tapped during the 2004/2005 season.
Massimo De Santis, Italy’s top referee, is battling for his place at this summer’s World Cup after it was revealed that Naples prosecutors have placed him under investigation there for alleged sporting fraud. De Santis knows the FIGC cannot send an official suspected of involvement in criminal activity to Germany 2006 and is desperate to clear his name. According to the next edition of Italian news magazine L’Espresso, which hits the newsstands on Friday, Naples prosecutors have officially placed Carraro, Pairetto and his colleague Paolo Bergamo on a list of people being probed. Meanwhile, the sports media reported on Thursday that the scandal is destined to snowball and include other Italian clubs. The epidemic is spreading, and the level of contagion remains to be seen.
