Boia Mafiosi!

"La Juve is thinking about a new jersey...and it seems they will keep the traditional stripes"

(got this image from Flickr. The Italian comments underneath said: "who knows what will happen," "probably nothing as usual," "yeah, yeah, yeah, the law is not equal for everyone" - Italian optimism in a nutshell)


Big news in Italian soccer these past couple weeks. A huge scandal involving Juventus General Manager Luciano Moggi have forced him and Juve's board to resign in shame. The scandal involves Moggi's illicit relations with the head of the Italian referees, Pier Luigi Pairetto, as well as investigations of Juve's CEO, Antonio Giraudo for false accounting. Transcripts of tapes between Moggi and Pairetto are especially titillating, with Moggi asking for "good refs" to be assigned to both friendly games and Champions League matches. In addition, there is an investigation of Moggi's son, who works for the management company (GEA) that handles most players' transfers, and who is implicated in illegal competition practices. Through the GEA, Moggi is suspected of exerting his power over the entire soccer world, allegedly using threats and violence, as well as abuse of a dominant position on the market. Even some players (including the admittedly talented, but famously stupid, Gianluigi Buffon) are under the spotlight for illegal gambling. Italy's top referee, De Santis, will probably lose his place as Italian referee for the World Cup. The president of the governing board of Italian soccer (FIGC) resigned, as did others at the FIGC.

And the situation seems to be snowballing with other teams (Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio) likely to be investigated. Of course all of the talking heads are asking for an overhaul, of the FIGC in particular and Italian soccer in general. Moggi has been - rightly, in my opinion, considering his bag of tricks - labeled a mafioso. According to FIGC regulations, all of the teams involved in this dirty dealing should be demoted to Serie B, and Juve should lose its Title (won yesterday). With even one team booted to the secondary league, La Roma would have its deserved place amongst the top four teams in the Italian Championship ranking to participate in the Champions League.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that, contrary to Italian business-as-usual, justice is done: that Juve is sent to the minor leagues (along with all the teams involved in corrupt practices), that the evil-doers of Calcio are fired, and may this be a Lesson, not only to the fat cats of the FIGC and sports directors of the more powerful teams, but also to Corruption Italian-style. Most of the people I talk to are disgusted with the allegations, and happy to see Juve go down, but few actually think it will happen. We'll just have to wait and see.