''Calciopoli'' () was a
sports scandal
This is a list of major sports scandals.
American football scandals
* Minnesota Vikings boat party scandal (2005) – a sex party involving several members of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL)
* National Football Leag ...
in Italy's top professional
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
league
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
and to a lesser extent
Serie B
The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...
. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian football bodies (,
FIGC
The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence.
It ...
, and
LNP), as well as some referees and referee assistants, the scandal was uncovered in May 2006, when a number of
telephone tapping
Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...
s showed relations between clubs' executives and referee organizations during the football seasons of 2004–05 and 2005–06, being accused of selecting favourable
referees
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
. This implicated league champions
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
and several other clubs, including
Fiorentina
ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...
,
Lazio
it, Laziale
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
,
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, and
Reggina
Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo.
They are n ...
. In July 2006, Juventus was stripped of the
2004–05 Serie A title, which was left unassigned, and was downgraded to last place in the
2005–06 Serie A, as the title was subsequently awarded to
Inter Milan
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...
, and relegated to Serie B. In July 2006,
Italy national football team
The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...
won the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
, beating
France national football team
The France national football team (french: Équipe de France de football) represents France in men's international football matches. It is governed by the French Football Federation (FFF; ), the governing body for football in France. It is a ...
5–3 in a
penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
following a 1–1 draw at the conclusion of
extra time
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...
; eight Juventus players were on the
football pitch
A football pitch (also known as soccer field) is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is typically made of natural tu ...
in the
2006 FIFA World Cup final
The 2006 FIFA World Cup Final was a football match that took place on 9 July 2006 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany, to determine the winner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The match was contested between Italy and France.
Italy won the Wor ...
, five for Italy and three for France. Many prison sentences were handed out to sporting directors and referees but all were acquitted in 2015, after almost a decade of investigation, due to the expiration of the
statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
(at the time, it was about 4 years for the sports trial and 7.5 years for the ordinary trial), except for a one-year sentence confirmed to referee
Massimo De Santis
Massimo De Santis (born 8 April 1962) is an Italian former association football referee. De Santis was born in Tivoli, Lazio. In addition to being a former referee, he is also a former police constable. De Santis speaks Italian and English. His ...
.
A subsequent investigation, dubbed ''
Calciopoli bis
''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A and to a lesser extent Serie B. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian footbal ...
'', implicated many other clubs, including
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
,
Cagliari
Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
,
ChievoVerona
Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to as ChievoVerona or simply Chievo , is a former professional Italian football club named after and based in Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a ...
,
Empoli
Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...
, Inter Milan,
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
,
Reggina
Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo.
They are n ...
,
Udinese
Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...
, and
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a th ...
; they were not put on trial due the
statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
. Although popularly known as a
match-fixing
In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
scandal and focused on Juventus, no match-fixing violations were found within the intercepted calls for Juventus, there were no requests for specific referees, no demands for favours, no conversations between Juventus directors and referees were found, and the season was deemed fair and legitimate. The club was absolved from any wrongdoings in the first verdict, while its sporting executives
Luciano Moggi
Luciano Moggi ( born 10 July 1937) is a former Italian association football administrator. He was a club executive for A.S. Roma, Roma, S.S. Lazio, Lazio, Torino F.C., Torino, S.S.C. Napoli, Napoli, and Juventus, leading them to win six leagues ...
and
Antonio Giraudo
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
were found guilty and banned for life six months before their previous five-year ban expired; they were absolved on charges related to sporting fraud, and appealed to the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
, once they exhausted their appeals in Italy's courts. Other club executives were found guilty but did not received lifetime bans and returned to their previous or new positions, among them Milan vice-president
Adriano Galliani
Adriano Galliani (born 30 July 1944) is an Italian entrepreneur and football executive who is the CEO of club Monza.
He is known for being former vice-chairman and CEO of AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, a period in the club's history known as t ...
and Lazio president
Claudio Lotito, both of whom retained or gained important positions in
Lega Serie A
The Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A (Italian for ''National Professionals League Serie A''), commonly known as LNPA or Lega Serie A (Serie A League), is the governing body that runs the major professional Association football, football com ...
. Most refeeres and their assistants were either found not guilty or had their sentences annulled due to the statute of limitations; only
Massimo De Santis
Massimo De Santis (born 8 April 1962) is an Italian former association football referee. De Santis was born in Tivoli, Lazio. In addition to being a former referee, he is also a former police constable. De Santis speaks Italian and English. His ...
and
Salvatore Racalbuto
Salvatore may refer to:
* Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name
* "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015
* Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band
* '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
were convicted.
Italy's Court of Appeal rejected damage claims from
Atalanta
Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology.
There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...
,
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
, Brescia, and
Lecce
Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...
due to the fact that no match in the 2004–05 championship was altered by non-football episodes. This led Juventus to request
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
444 million in damage claims, later updated to €551 million, to both Inter Milan and the FIGC, restoration of the 2005 ''
scudetto
The ''scudetto'' (Italian language, Italian for: "little shield") is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in ...
'', and the officialization of the 2006 ''scudetto''; all its appeals were either rejected due to the courts declaring themselves not competent or due to technical issues rather than juridical issues. Attempts for peace talks between Juventus, the FIGC, and other clubs did not improve relations, and the case remains much debated and controversial. Juventus returned to Serie A after winning the
Serie B 2006–07 championship and in the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
the following two years but then struggled with two consecutive seventh places, before starting a record nine-consecutive league titles run, two
Champions League final
The UEFA Champions League is a seasonal football competition established in 1955. Prior to the 1992–93 season, the tournament was named the European Cup. The UEFA Champions League is open to the league champions of all UEFA (Union of European ...
s, and four consecutive
domestic doubles. Milan won the
2006–07 UEFA Champions League
The 2006–07 UEFA Champions League was the 15th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded from the European Cup, and the 52nd season overall. The final was contested by Milan ...
but only won the
Serie A 2010–11 championship and struggled throughout the 2010s until winning the
2021–22 Serie A. Inter Milan started a cycle of five-consecutive league titles, culminating in the
treble with the
2009–10 UEFA Champions League win but then struggled throughout the 2010s, with
Napoli
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
and
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
as Juventus' main rivals, until winning the
2020–21 Serie A
The 2020–21 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 119th season of top-tier Italian football, the 89th in a round-robin tournament, and the 11th since its organization under an own league committee, the Lega Serie ...
during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ().
The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when t ...
. In April 2021, all three clubs found themselves united in the
European Super League
The European Super League (ESL), officially The Super League, was a proposed seasonal club football competition that initially would have been contested by twenty European football clubs, twelve of them being the competition's founding members. ...
project. As of 2022, the last league winner outside the three of them is Roma in 2001.
Etymology and origins
The name ''Calciopoli'', which could be adapted in English as "Footballgate", by analogy with the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
, and would be literally translated as "Footballville", was made up by the media by analogy with ''Tangentopoli'' (literally "Bribesville"), which is the name that was given to some corruption-based
clientelism
Clientelism or client politics is the exchange of goods and services for political support, often involving an implicit or explicit quid-pro-quo. It is closely related to patronage politics and vote buying. Clientelism involves an asymmetric rel ...
in Italy during the ''
Mani pulite
''Mani pulite'' (; Italian language, Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called "History of the Italian Republic#First ...
'' investigation in the early 1990s; in that case, the neologism was formed by combining the Italian word ''tangente'' ("bribe", from the Latin word ''tangens'', which means "to touch" and in a wider sense "to be due to") and the Greek word ''
polis
''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
'' ("city"), originally referring to
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
as "the city of bribes".
The scandal first came to light as a consequence of investigations of prosecutors on the Italian football agency
GEA World
GEA World S.p.A. is a consultancy company with offices in Rome, Dubai and London, operating in sports business industry. Alessandro Moggi is its president in partnership with Franco Zavaglia, Riccardo Calleri and Ivan Vecchietti. In January 2013, ...
. The leak of news that triggered ''Calciopoli'' in May 2006 did not start from the major sports or investigative press but rather came from ''Il Romanista'', a newspaper entirely dedicated to
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
supporters, and whose founder
Riccardo Luna Riccardo is a male given name, Italian version of Ricardo or Richard. It also may be a surname. It means "Powerful Leader".
It may refer to:
People A–L
*Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853–1912), Italian violin maker
*Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985), ...
continued to boast of being "the first to reveal the intrigues of ''Calciopoli''". The first major sport newspaper to anticipate and report the scandal was Milan-based ''
La Gazzetta dello Sport
''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018).
History and profile
''La ...
'', which also anticipated the subsequent court rulings. Transcripts of recorded telephone conversations soon thereafter published in major Italian newspapers suggested that Juventus general director
Luciano Moggi
Luciano Moggi ( born 10 July 1937) is a former Italian association football administrator. He was a club executive for A.S. Roma, Roma, S.S. Lazio, Lazio, Torino F.C., Torino, S.S.C. Napoli, Napoli, and Juventus, leading them to win six leagues ...
and Juventus CEO
Antonio Giraudo
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
had conversations with several Italian football officials to influence referee designations during the
2004–05 Serie A season. Notable referees, such as
Pierluigi Collina
Pierluigi Collina (; born 13 February 1960) is an Italian former football referee. He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998-2003.
Collina is still ...
and
Roberto Rosetti
Roberto Rosetti (born 18 September 1967) is an Italian former football referee. He is fluent in Italian (native), English and French. He started refereeing in 1983, and took charge of his first match in the Italian Serie A in 1996. He received hi ...
, were among the few referees to emerge unscathed from the scandal.
Investigation and sporting sentences
On 8 May 2006,
Franco Carraro
Franco Carraro (born 6 December 1939) is an Italian sport manager and politician.
Career
Carraro was born on 6 December 1939 in Padua, at the time Kingdom of Italy. He worked in many high-profile roles in the public and private sectors. He ...
resigned from the presidency of the FIGC, the body responsible for selecting Italy's
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
national team. Juventus' entire board of directors resigned on 11 May, while Moggi resigned shortly after Juventus won the 2005–06 Serie A championship on 14 May, saying: "They killed my soul." Giraudo stated: "We take our leave, but you will see that bandits will come after us." On the
Borsa Italiana
Borsa Italiana, based in Milan, is the Italian stock exchange. It manages and organises domestic market, regulating procedures for admission and listing of companies and intermediaries and supervising disclosures for listed companies.italy24.ils ...
, Italy's stock market, Juventus shares had lost about half their 9 May value by the 19 May.
Massimo De Santis
Massimo De Santis (born 8 April 1962) is an Italian former association football referee. De Santis was born in Tivoli, Lazio. In addition to being a former referee, he is also a former police constable. De Santis speaks Italian and English. His ...
was due to be Italy's refereeing representative at the
2006 World Cup; he was barred by the FIGC after coming under investigation.
Roberto Rosetti
Roberto Rosetti (born 18 September 1967) is an Italian former football referee. He is fluent in Italian (native), English and French. He started refereeing in 1983, and took charge of his first match in the Italian Serie A in 1996. He received hi ...
remained untainted by the scandal, and was chosen as one of the twenty-one
2006 FIFA World Cup officials.
The scandal drew attention to many potential
conflicts of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
within Italian football. Inter Milan provided sponsorship to the
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
through
Gruppo TIM
Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixed ...
, as Inter Milan vice-president
Marco Tronchetti Provera
Marco Tronchetti Provera (; born 1948) is an Italian businessman. He was the chief executive officer of Pirelli & C. S.p.A. from 1992 to 2022 and its executive vice chairman since October 20, 2015. He is the chairman of Marco Tronchetti, Provera & ...
was TIM director.
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
, Milan's president and owner, was
Prime Minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...
and owner of TV channel
Mediaset
Mediaset Italia S.p.A., also known as Mediaset, is an Italian-based mass media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE - MediaForEurope. Founded in 1987 by former ...
through
Fininvest
Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A., known as Fininvest S.p.A., is an Italian holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi.
Structure
The Fininvest group is co ...
, while
Adriano Galliani
Adriano Galliani (born 30 July 1944) is an Italian entrepreneur and football executive who is the CEO of club Monza.
He is known for being former vice-chairman and CEO of AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, a period in the club's history known as t ...
, as the vice president and CEO of Milan, also served as the president of Serie A. Juventus has been historically owned by the
Agnelli family
The Agnelli family () is an Italian multi-industry business dynasty founded by Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of the Fiat motor company which became Italy's largest automobile manufacturer. They are also primarily known for other ...
since the 1930s, which controls, alongside the Elkann family, holding company
Exor and automobile malnufacture
FIAT
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
but had no further involvement or conflict of interest in football other than the club. In addition to allegations of corruption and sporting fraud by owners, executives, players, referees, and league officials, Aldo Biscardi, the host of Italy's most popular football show, resigned amid allegations that he collaborated with Moggi to boost the club's image on television, compared to the Milanese side. Then-FIGC president
Franco Carraro
Franco Carraro (born 6 December 1939) is an Italian sport manager and politician.
Career
Carraro was born on 6 December 1939 in Padua, at the time Kingdom of Italy. He worked in many high-profile roles in the public and private sectors. He ...
was a former president of Milan and politically close to Berlusconi, while its successor
Guido Rossi was a former member of Inter Milan's board of directors and minority Inter Milan shareholder. Journalist
Christian Rocca commented: "I wonder why the Italian media say every possible abomination on the potential conflict of interest of Adriano Galliani, president of Lega
alcioand executive of Milan, but don't use the same criterion towards Guido Rossi, extraordinary commissioner of the
talian FootballFederation and former executive of Moratti's Inter Milan from 1995 to 1999, and of Gigi Agnolin, appointed commissioner of referees but still former executive of Roma from 1995 to 2000 (instead of Moggi, look what a combination)." Federal prosecutor
Carlo Porceddu Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to:
* Carlo (name)
*Monte Carlo
* Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince ...
, a critic of the trial, especially for its decision of revoking Juventus' title by assigning it to Inter Milan, stated in 2017 that Rossi appointed friends, one of whom was on Inter Milan's board of directors.
In all, magistrates in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
formally investigated 41 people, and looked into 19 Serie A matches from the 2004–05 season and 14 Serie A matches from the 2005–06 season. Prosecutors in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
examined the Juventus chairman Antonio Giraudo over transfers, suspected falsified accounts, and tax evasion. Prosecutors in
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
investigated
Gianluigi Buffon
Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a goalkeeper for the club Parma. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is one of the few recorded pl ...
, the national team
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
, as well as
Antonio Chimenti
Antonio Chimenti (born 30 June 1970) is an Italian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and current goalkeeping coach of SPAL.
Club career
S.S. Sambenedettese Calcio
Chimenti began his career in the youth academy of S.S ...
,
Enzo Maresca
Vincenzo 'Enzo' Maresca (; born 10 February 1980) is an Italian former footballer who played as a midfielder, and a current coach.
After starting out at West Bromwich Albion in 1998, he went on to play for several clubs in his country, includi ...
, and
Mark Iuliano
Mark Iuliano (; born 12 August 1973) is an Italian football manager and a former professional footballer who played as a defender. Following his retirement he worked as a coach. He is currently working as Igor Tudor's assistant at Serie A clu ...
, for suspected gambling on Serie A matches; all were cleared in the same year. After the first penalties were handed out, more clubs were looked at for possible links to the scandal.
Lecce
Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...
,
Messina
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...
, and
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...
were also investigated as prosecutors continued to analyze transcripts of telephone calls.
Matches under investigation
The standings of the
2005–06 Serie A championship, which was won by Juventus, were remade to retroactively punish implicated clubs the year prior. This controversially resulted in third-classified Inter Milan being awarded the ''scudetto'' by then-FIGC commissioner
Guido Rossi after a vote, on whether the title should be assigned by the ''tre saggi'' ("Three Sages")
Gerhard Aigner
Gerhard Aigner (born 1 September 1943 in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany) is a retired football executive. Aigner became on 22 September 1989 General Secretary of UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associa ...
,
Massimo Coccia, and
Roberto Pardolesi, as well as Juventus' relegation, and four other clubs (Fiorentina, Lazio, Milan, and Reggina) received penalty points. Only Aigner voted in favour of the assignation, with Rossi's ultimate decisive push for the assignation, even though UEFA only needed the final standings, and the cited precedent of the unassigned
1926–27 Divisione Nazionale title, which was revoked from Torino and not assigned to Bologna as the second-classified club. The 2005–06 championship was never investigated, and only the
2004–05 Serie A championship, also won by Juventus, was revoked.
The nineteen matches of the 2004–05 championship under investigation by the Naples prosecutor were the following:
*
Reggina
Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo.
They are n ...
–
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
2–1 (6 November 2004)
Referee:
Gianluca Paparesta
*
Lecce
Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...
–Juventus 0–1 (14 November 2004)
Referee:
Massimo De Santis
Massimo De Santis (born 8 April 1962) is an Italian former association football referee. De Santis was born in Tivoli, Lazio. In addition to being a former referee, he is also a former police constable. De Santis speaks Italian and English. His ...
* Juventus–
Lazio
it, Laziale
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
2–1 (5 December 2004)
Referee:
Paolo Dondarini
*
Fiorentina
ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...
–
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
1–0 (5 December 2004)
Referee: Massimo De Santis
* Bologna–Juventus 0–1 (12 December 2004)
Referee:
Tiziano Pieri
* Juventus–
Udinese
Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...
2–1 (13 February 2005)
Referee:
Pasquale Rodomonti
*
ChievoVerona
Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to as ChievoVerona or simply Chievo , is a former professional Italian football club named after and based in Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a ...
–Lazio 0–1 (20 February 2005)
Referee:
Gianluca Rocchi
* Lazio–
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
2–0 (27 February 2005)
Referee:
Domenico Messina
*
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
–Juventus 1–2 (5 March 2005)
Referee:
Salvatore Racalbuto
Salvatore may refer to:
* Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name
* "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015
* Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band
* '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
*
Inter Milan
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...
–Fiorentina 3–2 (20 March 2005)
Referee:
Paolo Bertini
* Fiorentina–Juventus 3–3 (9 April 2005)
Referee:
Pierluigi Collina
Pierluigi Collina (; born 13 February 1960) is an Italian former football referee. He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998-2003.
Collina is still ...
*
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
–
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
1–1 (10 April 2005)
Referee: Pasquale Rodomonti
* Bologna–Lazio 1–2 (17 April 2005)
Referee:
Paolo Tagliavento
*
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...
–Milan 2–1 (17 April 2005)
Referee: Pierluigi Collina
* Milan–ChievoVerona 1–0 (20 April 2005)
Referee: Gianluca Paparesta
* ChievoVerona–Fiorentina 1–2 (8 May 2005)
Referee: Paolo Dondarini
*
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
–Siena 3–6 (8 May 2005)
Referee: Massimo De Santis
* Lazio–Fiorentina 1–1 (22 May 2005)
Referee:
Roberto Rosetti
Roberto Rosetti (born 18 September 1967) is an Italian former football referee. He is fluent in Italian (native), English and French. He started refereeing in 1983, and took charge of his first match in the Italian Serie A in 1996. He received hi ...
* Lecce–Parma 3–3 (29 May 2005)
Referee: Massimo De Santis
Walter Distato and Leo Leonida from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
and Dario Maimone and Pietro Navarra from the
University of Messina
The University of Messina ( it, Università degli Studi di Messina; Latin: ''Studiorum Universitas Messanae''), known colloquially as UniME, is a state university located in Messina, Sicily, Italy. Founded in 1548 by Pope Paul III, it was the world ...
conducted a study on the 2004–05 Serie A championship. According to the study, Juventus averaged less points per game with investigated referees (De Santis, Rodomonti, Bertini, Dondarini, Rocchi, Messina, Gabriele, Racalbuto, and Tagliavento) than those who were not; Juventus averaged 2.63 points per game with the latter, and 1.89 points per game with the former. Fiorentina and Milan, two other clubs involved in the scandal, averaged 1.22 points per game with the latter, and 0.93 points per game with the former, and 2.19 points per game with the latter, and 2.0 points per game with the former, respectively. The only exception was Lazio, another club implicated in the scandal, which averaged 2.0 points per game with the former, and 0.81 points with the latter.
About their study, the authors wrote: "Ours is a purely statistical study. We are not interested, nor are we able to establish, if Moggi and the other executives under investigation could influence the matches, but from our point of view we can highlight three hypotheses more than valid: either there was no referee conditioning in the 2004–05 championship, or it existed but did not produce relevant results, or it's possible to think of a clash between executives for the acquisition of the football system that gave rise to winning and losing clubs in that which we can define as a 'parallel championship.'" Navarra, one of the authors, wrote: "In addition, in the study we also took into account the strength of the opponents faced by the teams involved. Juventus, for example, met stronger teams in matches directed by the referees under investigation. This could explain, at least in part, the considerable difference in the overall point average."
Club punishments and Juventus' controversy
On 4 July 2006, the
FIGC
The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence.
It ...
prosecutor
Stefano Palazzi called for all four clubs at the centre of the scandal to be thrown out of Serie A. Palazzi called for Juventus "being excluded from the Serie A Championship and assigned to a lower category to Serie B with 6 points deducted", while Fiorentina, Lazio, and Milan were to be also downgraded to last place in the
2005–06 Serie A and relegated to the
2006–07 Serie B. He also asked for point deductions to be imposed for the following season for the clubs (three for Milan and 15 for both Fiorentina and Lazio). The prosecutor also called for Juventus to be stripped of its 2005 title and downgraded to the last place in the 2006 league.
In the case against Reggina on 13 August, the prosecutor called for Reggina to be demoted to Serie B with a 15-point penalty. On 17 August, Reggina was handed down a 15-point penalty but no relegation from Serie A. Furthermore, the club was fined the equivalent of €100,000, while the club president
Pasquale Foti
Pasquale Foti (3 February 1950) is an entrepreneur, and president of Reggina Calcio.
Reggina Calcio
In 1986 Foti became managing director of the newly re-formed and renamed Reggina Calcio. In 1991, he became president. Under his presidency, Regg ...
was fined €30,000 and banned from all football-related activities for two-and-a-half years.
In the ruling, the Federal Commission of Appeal (CAF), a FIGC judicial court, stated that Juventus was not responsible for Fiorentina avoiding relegation, and that Moggi and Giraudo operated independently of Juventus and its owners. In addition, the court ruled that there was no evidence of match fixing, and there was no ''cupola'' or "Moggi system", as was reported by ''
La Gazzetta dello Sport
''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018).
History and profile
''La ...
''. Finally, referee selections were done in accordance with the rules of the FIGC, phone calls made by Moggi to referee designator
Paolo Bergamo
Paolo Bergamo (born 21 April 1943) is an Italian former football referee. He is better known as the former Italian Football Federation (FIGC) referee designator who was implicated in the 2006 Italian football scandal, and who resigned his posit ...
did not constitute in itself a sporting illicit, and there was no organization of yellow cards to give. Nonetheless, the sentence stated that "though Moggi didn't exercise his ability to condition matches, he still possessed the ability", and even though there were no Article 6 violations against Juventus, it introduced the much-disputed ''illecito associativo'' ("associative illict") violation; the given motivation was that "Juventus' advantage was evidenced by their position in the standings at the end of the season."
On 28 July 2006, CAF judge
Piero Sandulli said there were no illicits and the championship was regular. He commented: "The 2004/2005 championship wasn't falsified. The only doubt we could have was about that strange match between Lecce and Parma, a match that we have seen and reviewed. However, it can't be said that the championship has been falsified. There may have been an attempt to fix it, but it would have needed four or five combinations." In an interview with ''
la Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'' the day prior,
Mario Serio, the then-director of the private law department at the Palermo Faculty of Law and one of the five members of the CAF who signed the verdict, stated: "It wasn't a unanimous decision, it wasn't shared." Despite a lack of evidence regarding match fixing and no Article 6 violation, only Juventus was sentenced to be relegated to Serie B and stripped of their titles after taking into consideration the collective interests of the parties involved in the investigation. Serio added: "We tried to interpret a collective sentiment. We listened to ordinary people and tried to put ourselves on the wavelength." According to Serio, while Juventus was relegated, the other clubs "were saved"; all this happened "because people wanted it that way", referencing ''sentimento popolare'' ("people's feelings"). Serio said he wanted to convict then-FIGC president
Franco Carraro
Franco Carraro (born 6 December 1939) is an Italian sport manager and politician.
Career
Carraro was born on 6 December 1939 in Padua, at the time Kingdom of Italy. He worked in many high-profile roles in the public and private sectors. He ...
and remove Milan from European competitions but Sandulli,
Salvatore Catalano, and
Mario Sanino
is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
put him into minority. Milan was saved because then-Milan vice-president
Adriano Galliani
Adriano Galliani (born 30 July 1944) is an Italian entrepreneur and football executive who is the CEO of club Monza.
He is known for being former vice-chairman and CEO of AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, a period in the club's history known as t ...
stated that he was not aware of Milan referee clerk
Leonardo Meani's behavior; this was proved to be false in later wiretaps and developments. Serio added: "We recognized everything about the CAF ruling, apart from two episodes: the falsified championship, the repeated offences of Juventus,
ndthe existence of a system."
Corrado De Biase,
1980 Totonero chief investigator, commented on the sentence of
Francesco Saverio Borrelli
Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include:
People with the given name Francesco
* Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...
, who spoke of a "structured illicit" as a crime committed by Moggi and his associates. He said: "We're talking about a structured illicit. But what is it? It doesn't exist. They want to make it clear that there's something different, anomalous. But structured illicit, not at all. There's no sporting illicit. We can't talk about things that don't exist in the sports judicial system. I still haven't seen any proof of sporting illicit. Until now, what I see is the violation of Article 1 of the Sports Justice Code, which requires members to behave according to the principles of loyalty, correctness, and probity. But of what we have read to date, it doesn't prove to me that there was an attempt to alter a match."
The CAF ruling was long disputed because of the severity of the punishment meted out to Juventus compared to the other clubs involved. The verdict remains controversial, as Juventus was charged with Article 1 violations, like the other involved clubs, and did not violate Article 6, but it was the sole club to be relegated. Juventus was charged of Article 6 violations through structured illicit, which was not part of the Code of Sports Justice, and was added to the new Code of Sports Justice after the scandal; accordingly, Juventus was charged with Article 6 violations through repeated Article 1 violations. As summarized by Carlo Garganese for
Goal
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...
, "
he FIGC sentencestated perfectly clearly that no Article 6 violations (match-fixing/attempted match-fixing breaks the sixth article of the sporting code) were found within the intercepted calls and the season was fair and legitimate, but that the ex-Juventus directors nonetheless demonstrated they could potentially benefit from their exclusive relationship with referee designators Gianluigi Pairetto and Paolo Bergamo. There were, however, no requests for specific referees, no demands for favours and no conversations between Juventus directors and referees themselves." ''
Calciopoli bis
''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A and to a lesser extent Serie B. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian footbal ...
'' and the Naples trial showed that many other clubs were involved, which weakened the prosecutor's argument of Juventus' exclusivity, the main reason for the club's harsher punishment; according to Garganese, "their mere existence meant that the theory of Juventus' 'exclusivity' could no longer hold", and "for the first time credibility shifted in favour of those who had claimed that Moggi, Giraudo and Juventus had been the victims of a witch-hunt."
Another controversy was that related to Juventus' defense lawyer Cesare Zaccone, who stated that "a punitive relegation to the second division would be acceptable." In later years, Zaccone would clarify that he made the statement because Juventus was the only club risking more than one-division relegation (
Serie C
The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C.
The unification of the Lega Pro ...
), as at that time only a few clubs were implicated and Juventus appeared to be the main culprit, and he meant for Juventus to have equal treatment with the other clubs, which were also risking to be relegated; only Juventus would be relegated, resulting in the club's appeal for damage claims in the subsequent years against the FIGC due to unequal treatment. Some critics and observers, including as judge De Biase, journalist and former ''
Tuttosport
''Tuttosport'' is an Italian sport newspaper published in Turin, Italy.
History and profile
''Tuttosport'' was first published on 30 July 1945. Renato Casalbore (who later died in the 1949 Superga air disaster alongside the Il Grande Torino fo ...
'' director
Giancarlo Padovan, Ju29ro, and journalists, such as
Oliviero Beha
Oliviero Beha (14 January 1949 – 13 May 2017) was an Italian journalist, writer, essayist, TV, and radio host.
Biography
Beha was born in Florence, and began work as a journalist in 1973 for the sports newspaper ''Tuttosport'' and for ''Paese ...
and
Angelo Furgione, alleged that ''Calciopoli'' and its aftermath were also a dispute within Juventus and between the club's owners, who wanted to get rid of Moggi and Giraudo, and whatever their intentions, they condemned Juventus, firstly when Zaccone asked for relegation and point-deduction, and secondly when Montezemolo retired Juventus' appeal to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR), which amounted, as recounted by ''
Corriere della Sera
The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015.
First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...
'' journalist
Mario Sconcerti
Mario Sconcerti (24 October 1948 – 17 December 2022) was an Italian sports journalist and writer.
Biography
Sconcerti was the son of Adriano Sconcerti, a well-known boxing promoter and began his journalistic career at Corriere dello Sport in ...
, to "a sort of public plea bargain" and guilty admission. In a 2020 interview with ''
la Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'', Zaccone said he is a supporter of
Torino
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...
, Juventus' derby rival, and revealed to have defended Juventus for money.
Effect on Serie A and club appeals
Initially, with Juventus, Fiorentina, and Lazio all relegated,
Messina
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...
,
Lecce
Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...
, and
Treviso
Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...
would have remained in Serie A, despite finishing in the bottom three in the 2005–06 season. After the appeals, only Messina remained in Serie A. Clubs promoted from Serie B (
Atalanta
Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology.
There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...
,
Catania
Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...
, and
Torino
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...
) were unaffected and promoted to Serie A as normal. Based on the preliminary final league positions, Juventus and Milan would have earned a direct entry into the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
,
Inter Milan
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...
and Fiorentina would have entered the third qualifying round of the Champions League, while
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
, Lazio, and
ChievoVerona
Associazione Calcio ChievoVerona, commonly referred to as ChievoVerona or simply Chievo , is a former professional Italian football club named after and based in Chievo, a suburb of 4,500 inhabitants in Verona, Veneto, and owned by Paluani, a ...
would have been eligible for the
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...
. On 6 June 2006, the FIGC officially withdrew from the
2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup, costing
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
a place in the third round of the competition, citing the fact that the 2005–06 Serie A standings could not be confirmed by the 5 June deadline. UEFA gave the FIGC a 25 July deadline to confirm the standings or face sanctions in the two larger European competitions, which was then extended to 26 July. After the appeals, Inter Milan, Roma, ChievoVerona, and Milan occupied Italy's four places for the
2006–07 UEFA Champions League
The 2006–07 UEFA Champions League was the 15th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded from the European Cup, and the 52nd season overall. The final was contested by Milan ...
. Inter Milan and Roma received a direct entry into the Champions League, while ChievoVerona and Milan started at the third qualifying round. Milan's entry was confirmed by UEFA shortly after the appeals process, and Milan went on to win the competition. Palermo,
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
, and
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...
took the
2006–07 UEFA Cup
The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla won their second consecutive UEFA Cup, defeating Espanyol 3–1 on penalties after the match ...
first-round slots originally given to Roma, Lazio, and ChievoVerona.
The clubs sent down to Serie B were initially expected to have a difficult road back to the top flight, as they would have had to finish in the top two of Serie B to be assured of promotion, and also had to avoid finishing in the bottom four to avoid being relegated to
Serie C1
Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...
. Juventus was initially docked 30 points, the equivalent of having ten wins nullified; the point penalty was later reduced to nine points, and went on to win Serie B in the 2006–07 season to make a swift return to Serie A. Fiorentina was docked fifteen points, was expected to struggle in Serie A, and faced an outside chance of relegation the following season but finished the
2006–07 Serie A season in sixth place, earning a place in the
2007–08 UEFA Cup
The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Cup, UEFA's second-tier club football tournament. The final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England on 14 May 2008 between Rangers of Scotland and Zenit Saint Pet ...
. The relegation of Juventus also prompted a mass exodus of important players, such as
Fabio Cannavaro
Fabio Cannavaro (; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian professional football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of club Benevento.
A centre-back, he spent the majority of his career in Italy. He started his career at Napo ...
,
Emerson,
Zlatan Ibrahimović
Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...
,
Lilian Thuram
Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien (; born 1 January 1972) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender.
He began playing football professionally in his homeland with Monaco and played in the top flight in France, Italy and Spai ...
,
Patrick Viera
Patrick Vieira (born 23 June 1976) is a French professional association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player who is the manager of club Crystal Palace F.C., Crystal Palace. He is widely considered as one ...
, and
Gianluca Zambrotta; some thirty other Serie A players who participated at the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
opted to move to other European leagues in the wake of the scandal. Notably, Juventus captain
Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit fo ...
and fellow stars
Gianluigi Buffon
Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a goalkeeper for the club Parma. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is one of the few recorded pl ...
,
Mauro Camoranesi
Mauro Germán Camoranesi Serra (, ; born 4 October 1976) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a right midfielder or right winger.
Camoranesi began his career in Argentina in 1995, where he played for Aldosivi and B ...
,
Pavel Nedved, and
David Trezeguet
David Sergio Trezeguet (born 15 October 1977) is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker.
Trezeguet began his career in Argentina with Club Atlético Platense at the age of eight, progressing through their youth sys ...
, including future defense's cornerstone
Giorgio Chiellini
Giorgio Chiellini (; born 14 August 1984) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. Considered one of the best defenders of his generation, Chiellini is known for his strengt ...
and young stars like
Claudio Marchisio
Claudio Marchisio (; born 19 January 1986) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
A product of the Juventus youth system, he spent a large portion of his career at his hometown club, with the exception of a sea ...
, stayed through "the purgatory of Serie B". Notably, Del Piero defended his decision to remain at Juventus, referencing the club's nickname, "The Old Lady", and said that "a true gentleman never leaves his lady." Juventus rebuilt from the ground up, restructured their management team, built a new stadium, and renegotiated a number of key sponsorship contracts for the future. By the 2020s, the club had won a record-breaking nine-consecutive Serie A championships with three different coaches (former Juventus player
Antonio Conte
Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur.
Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later ...
,
Massimiliano Allegri
Massimiliano Allegri (; born 11 August 1967), also known as Max Allegri, is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Juventus.
During his playing career, Allegri played in the Serie A as a midfielder ...
, and
Maurizio Sarri
Maurizio Sarri (; born 10 January 1959) is an Italian professional football manager who is the current manager of club Lazio.
Sarri did not play football professionally, taking part as an amateur centre back and coach while working as a banker. ...
), along with four
Coppa Italia
The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since.
History
The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...
and consecutive
domestic doubles, four
Supercoppa Italiana, and reached two
UEFA Champions League final
The UEFA Champions League is a seasonal football competition established in 1955. Prior to the 1992–93 season, the tournament was named the European Cup. The UEFA Champions League is open to the league champions of all UEFA (Union of Europea ...
s, in 2015 and 2017, respectively. In a twist of fate, ''Calciopoli'' nemesis Inter Milan and former coach Conte ended Juventus' unprecedented Serie A run in 2021.
On 26 October, the second appeal reduced Lazio's penalty to three points, Juventus' reduced to nine points, and Fiorentina's reduced to fifteen points, while Milan was unsuccessful and still faced with an eight-point deduction. Juventus previously announced that they planned to appeal the punishment in the Italian civil courts, an action that would have brought further punishment to the clubs and the FIGC by
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
, as FIFA has historically taken a dim view to government involvement in football administration. FIFA announced that it had the option to suspend the FIGC, barring all Italian clubs from international play, if Juventus went to court; some analysts, such as
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, described them as "FIFA threats". After the FIGC threatened to freeze all Italian competition, which could have resulted Italy's national team not taking part at the
UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying, Juventus dropped its appeal before the TAR on 31 August, the day before it was due to be heard; FIFA president
Sepp Blatter
Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of ...
personally thanked Juventus, particularly
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (; born 31 August 1947) is an Italian businessman, former Chairman of Ferrari, and formerly Chairman of Fiat S.p.A. and President of Confindustria and FIEG. He comes from an aristocratic family from the region of Piedmo ...
, for dropping the appeal. Juventus officials cited the "willingness shown by sportive institutions
he_FIGC_and_the_Italian_National_Olympic_Committee_(CONI).html" ;"title="Italian_National_Olympic_Committee.html" ;"title="he FIGC and the Italian National Olympic Committee">he FIGC and the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI)">Italian_National_Olympic_Committee.html" ;"title="he FIGC and the Italian National Olympic Committee">he FIGC and the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI)to review its case during [CONI's] arbitration." In retrospect, this decision in particular is criticized because it could have cleared Juventus' name and avoided relegation. In addition, some critics alleged that the decision could also be partially explained by Montezemolo's relations with then-Inter Milan vice-president
Marco Tronchetti Provera
Marco Tronchetti Provera (; born 1948) is an Italian businessman. He was the chief executive officer of Pirelli & C. S.p.A. from 1992 to 2022 and its executive vice chairman since October 20, 2015. He is the chairman of Marco Tronchetti, Provera & ...
, who was also owner of Inter Milan's sponsor
Telecom Italia
Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixe ...
, which would go on in 2007 to sponsor
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari Società per Azioni, S.p.A. () is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in refere ...
, of which Montezemolo was president; Montezemolo was also
Confindustria
The General Confederation of Italian Industry ( it, Confederazione generale dell'industria italiana), commonly known as Confindustria, is the Italy, Italian employers' federation and national chamber of commerce, founded in 1910. It groups togeth ...
president, while Tronchetti Provera was Confindustria vice-president. Both Montezemolo and Tronchetti Provera were implicated in the
SISMI-Telecom scandal
The SISMI-Telecom scandal, uncovered in Italy in 2006, refers to a surveillance scandal believed to have begun in 1996, under which more than 5,000 persons' phones were tapped.
First arrests
As part of the judiciary investigation on the '' Im ...
, but they were not processually involved. In a ''
la Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'' interview, Telecom's old security guided by
Giuliano Tavaroli dismissed the theory that the Telecom management was unaware of those spying operations, saying that they were worried about protecting Montezemolo, its favourite candidate for the Confindustria presidency.
Inter Milan's controversial 2006 ''scudetto'' assignation
On 26 July, the FIGC declared Inter Milan as the
Italian football champion for the 2005–06 season. Regarding this decision,
Carlo Porceddu Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to:
* Carlo (name)
*Monte Carlo
* Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince ...
, federal prosecutor from 1998 to 2001 and vice-president of the Federal Court of Appeal, stated in an interview with Unione Sarda: "Revoking the 2005/2006 ''
scudetto
The ''scudetto'' (Italian language, Italian for: "little shield") is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in ...
'' from Juventus and assigning to Inter Milan was a serious mistake. The ''Calciopoli'' investigation should have been more thorough, so much so that we, as the Federal Court, had limited the penalty to Juventus not withdrawing the championship title due to insufficient evidence. In fact, that aspect had been neglected. Then, the special commissioner of the
talian FootballFederation of that period had appointed a group of his friends, one of whom was also on the board of directors of Inter Milan, and that title was revoked from Juventus and given to Inter Milan. That was a grave error in my view." Purceddu also highlighted how several aspects of the investigation needed to be clarified.
Franco Carraro
Franco Carraro (born 6 December 1939) is an Italian sport manager and politician.
Career
Carraro was born on 6 December 1939 in Padua, at the time Kingdom of Italy. He worked in many high-profile roles in the public and private sectors. He ...
, Rossi's predecessor, was another critic of Rossi's decision, especially because, as Carraro recalled years later, "a month later Rossi goes to be president of Telecom for the second time, whose largest shareholder is Marco Tronchetti Provera, vice-president of Inter Milan."
Piero Sandulli, president of the FIGC National Court of Appeal, was against giving the ''scudetto'' to Inter Milan, and stated to have been criticized at that time for it; in later years, Sandulli reiterated that the title should not have been assigned to Inter Milan. The decision was further condemned because of Inter Milan's involvement, among other clubs not originally implicated, which could not be put on trial due to the statute of limitations. This caused a dispute between the FIGC, Inter Milan, and Juventus. Although it was deemed likely, or almost certain, that the FIGC would revoke Inter Milan's ''scudetto'', and despite Juventus' appeals to have it revoked even without giving it back to Juventus, it did not happen; the FIGC Federal Council voted to declare itself not competent.
Later developments and trials
SIM cards and wiretaps
By April 2007, some new details about the ''Calciopoli'' affair were disclosed, as Naples prosecutors were able to find out a series of telephone calls through foreign
SIM card
file:SIM-Karte von Telefónica O2 Europe - Standard und Micro.jpg, A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout)
file:Sim card.png, A smart card taken from a Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM mobile phone
file:Simkarte NFC SecureE ...
s between Moggi, Bergamo, Pairetto, and several referees. Since the conversations were through foreign SIM cards, the Italian police could not tap them, so they could only try to match together phone numbers, numbers called, and places. The SIM cards had been purchased in a store in
Chiasso
Chiasso (; lmo, Ciass ) is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.
As the southernmost of Switzerland's municipalities, Chiasso is on the border with Italy, in front of Ponte Chiasso (a frazione of Co ...
(Switzerland); some SIM cards were Swiss and registered to the store owner's family, while the others came from an anonymous person in Liechtenstein. The prosecutors also discovered the use of a Slovenian SIM card. In this investigation they involved Moggi, Pairetto, Bergamo, Fabiani (Messina sporting director), the referees De Santis, Racalbuto, Paparesta, Pieri, Cassarà, Dattilo, Bertini, and Gabriele, and the referee assistant Ambrosino. According to this investigation, Paparesta also used the Swiss SIM card for personal use and this helped the prosecutors to discover this secret communication channel. Apparently, Moggi had five foreign SIM cards, two of which had been used to communicate with Bergamo and Pairetto, whereas the others had supposed to have been used to communicate with the referees and Fabiani. Moreover, another wiretap was unveiled by the Italian daily ''
La Stampa
''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
History and profile
The paper was fou ...
''. Although containing nothing truly compromising, it recorded Moggi and
Marcello Lippi (former coach of Juventus and coach of
Italy national football team
The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...
at that time) insulting Inter Milan president
Massimo Moratti
Massimo Moratti (born 16 May 1945) is an Italian billionaire petroleum businessman, the former owner of Inter Milan and chairman of the Saras Group, founded in 1962 by his father, industrialist Angelo Moratti. The main production site of the Sara ...
and Inter Milan coach
Roberto Mancini
Roberto Mancini (; born 27 November 1964) is an Italian football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of the Italy national team.
As a player, Mancini operated as a deep-lying forward, and was best known for his time at Samp ...
. Lippi stated that Mancini deserved a lesson, while Moggi answered that Mancini would have such a lesson.
On 26 April 2007, about two hundred audio files of the wiretaps, some published one year before in the written form and some never published, were released; this allowed readers to perceive tones and forms of the conversations. Milan, originally ejected from the 2006–07 Champions League due to the scandal, went on to win the competition on 23 May. On 17 June, on the Italian show ''
Qui studio a voi stadio
''Qui studio a voi stadio'' (known also by the acronym ''QSVS'') is a sports talk and debate television program produced by Telelombardia and aired on various affiliated local television channels in Italy, entirely devoted to Italian Soccer, in ...
'', a popular football show broadcast by the local TV
Telelombardia
Telelombardia is a Milan-based Italian local television network that offer entertainment programs, news and weather bulletins, sports and political debates, variety shows and paid programming.
See also
* Qui studio a voi stadio
''Qui studio ...
based in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, Bergamo said that Moggi gave two Swiss SIM cards to Pairetto, who then gave one of those SIM cards to him. Bergamo stated that, on suspicion of being tapped, he used that SIM card only to communicate with Pairetto and that, after the exhaustion of the credit, he did not use the SIM card anymore. In June 2008, Juventus was fined a further €300,000 in three installments, while Messina were fined €60,000. On 14 December 2009, Giraudo was sentenced to three years in prison.
In October 2008, chief prosecutor
Giuseppe Narducci was quoted in court as saying: "Like it or not, no other calls exist between the designators and other directors." During the ''Calciopoli'' trial in Naples, the legal team of Moggi released a number of wiretaps showing that Inter Milan, as well as Milan, had been involved in the Serie A scandal during 2004 and 2005. Such wiretaps involved Milan vice-president
Adriano Galliani
Adriano Galliani (born 30 July 1944) is an Italian entrepreneur and football executive who is the CEO of club Monza.
He is known for being former vice-chairman and CEO of AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, a period in the club's history known as t ...
, Milan employee
Leonardo Meani, Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti, then-Inter Milan president
Giacinto Facchetti
Giacinto Facchetti (; 18 July 1942 – 4 September 2006) was an Italian footballer who played as a left-back for Inter Milan from 1960 to 1978. He later served as Inter chairman from January 2004 until his death in 2006. He played 634 official ga ...
, and former referee designators
Paolo Bergamo
Paolo Bergamo (born 21 April 1943) is an Italian former football referee. He is better known as the former Italian Football Federation (FIGC) referee designator who was implicated in the 2006 Italian football scandal, and who resigned his posit ...
and
Pierluigi Pairetto
Pierluigi Pairetto (born 15 July 1952 in Turin) is an Italian former football referee. Among the many prestigious games he officiated were the Euro 96 final between Germany and the Czech Republic at Wembley, and the classic USA 94 second-round c ...
, as well as many other Italian clubs not previously mentioned in the scandal.
During the October 2010
industrial espionage
Industrial espionage, economic espionage, corporate spying, or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security.
While political espionage is conducted or orchestrated by governmen ...
case against Telecom Italia (
SISMI-Telecom scandal
The SISMI-Telecom scandal, uncovered in Italy in 2006, refers to a surveillance scandal believed to have begun in 1996, under which more than 5,000 persons' phones were tapped.
First arrests
As part of the judiciary investigation on the '' Im ...
), Tronchetti Provera (
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational tyre manufacturer based in Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, is the 6th-largest tyre manufacturer and is focused on the consumer production of tyre ...
president and former CEO, Inter Milan shareholder and former vice-president, and former Telecom president), confirmed the statements delivered by Caterina Plateo (former Telecom employee) in her testimony that the company was spying on members of the football realm on behalf of Inter Milan; these revelations were brought to the Naples trial. When ''Calciopoli''s chief investigator Colonnel
Attilio Auricchio
Saint Attilio, one of the legendary martyrs of the Theban Legion, is venerated as a saint in the area of Trino Vercellese, in Piedmont, north-west Italy and commemorated on 28 June. However his cult is no longer officially recognized by the Rom ...
was cross-examined by Moggi's lawyer, it was revealed that he had tampered evidence prior to handing it over to the sporting tribunal in 2006. According to Carlo Garganese, Auricchio did this "by pulling out the thousands upon thousands of calls made by directors and coaches to referee designators that would have shown no one had an exclusive relationship." Inter Milan's implicating calls, among other clubs', which were not ordered to be transcribed, were signed with three moustache-like red lines to indicate the grade of gravity.
In September 2011,
Salvatore Racalbuto
Salvatore may refer to:
* Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name
* "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015
* Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band
* '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
's lawyer Giacomo Mungiello stated: "No probative value can be attributed to the Swiss SIM cards themselves. According to the prosecutor, the cell phone would have hooked up the cell near Racalbuto's house in Gallarate on the evening of the match. Today we produce a document which shows that on both occasions the referee slept in the hotel the same evening and didn't return home. Among the texts heard, there was Coppola, who told us that he had presented himself to the ''
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
'', invited by Borrelli's appeal, and that he had told them to tell them something about Inter Milan, but the ''Carabinieri'' didn't want to know and they were interested only in Juventus, which tells us all about the way the investigation went."
Palazzi's 2011 report and Naples developments
On 15 June 2011, six months prior to their initial five-year ban's expiration, the FIGC announced that Moggi, Giraudo, and Mazzini would be banned for life from any football-related roles in Italy. Despite popular perception of a
match-fixing
In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
scandal and ''Calciopoli'' being referred to as
match-fixing in association football, especially in the beginnings and its first phase, the sentence stated that no Article 6 (about match fixing or attempted match-fixing) violations were found within the intercepted calls, and the season was fair and legitimate. Furthermore, no requests for specific referees, no demands for favours, and no conversations between Juventus directors and referees themselves were found; their lifetime ban was because they could potentially benefit from their exclusive relations with referee designators.
In July 2011, the FIGC chief investigator Stefano Palazzi alleged in his report that, in addition to Moggi, other club officials violated the Code of Sporting Justice by contacting referee designators in illegal manners, which contradicted Moggi and Giraudo's exclusivity; they included Article 1 violations by
Nello Governato (
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
),
Massimo Cellino (
Cagliari
Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
),
Luca Campedelli
The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. This includes all cellular organisms; th ...
(ChievoVerona),
Fabrizio Corsi (
Empoli
Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...
), Massimo Moratti (Inter Milan),
Leonardo Meani (Milan),
Rino Foschi (Palermo),
Pasquale Foti
Pasquale Foti (3 February 1950) is an entrepreneur, and president of Reggina Calcio.
Reggina Calcio
In 1986 Foti became managing director of the newly re-formed and renamed Reggina Calcio. In 1991, he became president. Under his presidency, Regg ...
(Reggina),
Luciano Spalletti (Udinese), and
Sergio Gasparin (
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a th ...
), and Article 6 violations by Giacinto Facchetti (Inter Milan), Leonardo Meani (Milan), and
Aldo Spinelli
Aldo may refer to:
* Aldo (given name), male given name
** Aldo (footballer, born 1977)
** Aldo (footballer, born 1988)
* Aldo Group, a worldwide chain of shoe stores
* Aldosterone in shorthand
* Aldo Bonzi, a town in Argentina
{{disa ...
(Livorno). According to Palazzi's findings, these clubs had to be punished during the ''Calciopoli'' trial, but no court could confirm these allegations since all facts are covered by the statute of limitation. In regard to Inter Milan's 2006 ''scudetto'', Palazzi wrote: "Inter Milan appears to be the only club against which, in hypothesis, concrete consequences can arise on the sporting level, even if indirectly with respect to the outcome of the disciplinary procedure." In response to Palazzi's report,
Giancarlo Abete
Giancarlo Abete (born 26 August 1950) is an Italian politician and sport director. Formerly a member of the Italian parliament, Abete is now the third vice president of UEFA. Abete also served positions in the Italian Football Federation, FIGC be ...
, then-president of the FIGC, stated that there were no legal ground to revoke the title from Inter Milan; he hinted that Inter Milan should give away the title and leave it unassigned on the basis of ethics.
During the Naples trial, Moggi's lawyer Maurilio Prioreschi asked the court to take in consideration that between 2006 (the year of the first sentences) and 2011 (the year of the sentence on Moggi's lifetime ban) numerous hearings were held during the criminal trial in Naples, from which wiretaps involving other club executives which, according to Moggi's legal defense, would drop the basic assumption of the 2006 sports conviction, namely that relating to the conditioning of the referees thanks to the preferential treatment by the referee designators towards Moggi and Juventus, which in turn led to the sporting offence; many of those wiretaps formed the body of Palazzi's report, with which the FIGC chief prosecutor intended to refer many executives and clubs for violations of the Code of Sports Justice, a circumstance which was prevented only by the statute of limitation. The court's Disciplinary Commission purposely ignored this defensive argument, and arguing that it was a reassessment of the facts not permitted at that time, no importance was given to the conduct of those other executives and clubs which had just emerged during the criminal trial. According to the FIGC Federal Court of Justice, as explained in its judgment of appeal in regards to the term ''attualizzare'' ("actualize"), the court was there not to expand the evidence on which the first judgment was based but rather to ascertain whether at that time those established facts were still serious enough to justify a lifetime ban; it concluded that this ruling must be expressed exclusively "on the basis of the sentences rendered" against Moggi, and cannot take into consideration any comparative judgment with conducts possibly attributable to other subjects of the FIGC law. The court stated that to have a reassessment of the facts of ''Calciopoli'', it would be necessary to request and open a revocation of judgment pursuant to Article 39 of the Code of Sports Justice.
On 8 November 2011, the Naples court issued the first conclusion of the criminal case against Moggi and the other football personalities involved, sentencing him to jail for five years and four months for criminal association. In December 2013, Moggi's sentence was reduced to two years and four months for being found guilty of conspiring to commit a crime; the earlier charge of sporting fraud passed the statute of limitations. On 17 March 2014, the Naples court confirmed Moggi, Pairetto, and Mazzini's conviction for the same charge. In its ruling's motivation, the court wrote of "a proven system already operating in the years 1999/2000 between the subjects, who along the lines of weaving 'friendly relations' were carrying out conduct aimed at phasing the real scope and potential of some football teams", to which Paolo Ziliani, a journalist who is known for his anti-Juventus claims, commented for ''
Il Fatto Quotidiano
''il Fatto Quotidiano'' (English: "The Daily Fact") is an Italian daily newspaper owned by ''Editoriale Il Fatto SpA'' published in Rome, Italy. It was founded on 23 September 2009 and was edited by Antonio Padellaro until 2015, when Marco Trav ...
'' that, even though three of them were won by clubs other than Juventus, they should be also revoked; no evidence was provided for the claim, and none of the previous leagues were investigated. Of the indicated allegedly altered championships, Juventus won four of them (2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, and 2005–06), one of which (2001–02) was won in the last match and became known as "the ''scudetto'' of 5 May", and two of which (2004–05 and 2005–06) were the only ones to be revoked from Juventus, while Lazio (1999–2000), Roma (2000–01), and Milan (2003–04) each won one ''scudetto'', respectively. The first alleged altered championship was one year after the Inter Milan–Juventus' second leg match, and the first year with Pairetto and Bergamo as referee designators.
Supreme Court rulings and Juventus' appeals
On 23 March 2015, the
Supreme Court of Cassation, Italy's highest
court of appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
, ruled in its final resolution that Moggi was acquitted of "some individual charges for sporting fraud, but not from being the 'promoter' of the 'criminal conspiracy' that culminated in ''Calciopoli''." The remaining charges of Moggi were cancelled without a new trial due to the statute of limitations. Giraudo's sentence also expired in March 2015. Appeals by Fiorentina owners Andrea and Diego Della Valle and Lazio president Claudio Lotito against their sentences were rejected on the same ground, as their cases passed the statute of limitations. The court accepted the prosecutor's request to clear charges of former referees Paolo Bertini, Antonio Dattilo, and Gennaro Mazzei but rejected the appeals for Massimo De Santis and Savaltore Racabulto. Shortly after the court's decision, the then-FIGC president
Carlo Tavecchio
Carlo Tavecchio (born 13 July 1943) is an Italian politician, sports executive, and administrator.
Career
For four legislatures, he held the office of Mayor of Ponte Lambro. For 15 years, he was president of an amateur company. From 1987 to 1992 ...
remarked in an interview with
ANSA
Ansa (Latin for "handle") or ANSA may refer to:
Organizations
* Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Italian news agency
** Ansa Mediterranean or ANSAmed, section of the above
* Applied Neuroscience Society of Australasia
* Association of Norw ...
that "while the motivations may be pending, the sentence confirms the thesis of the prosecution", and "the crimes were real and so was the criminal conspiracy." In response to the final verdict, Moggi said that it merely let the courts off the hook, not him, and vowed to turn to the European courts in hopes to have his ban from football world lifted.
On 9 September 2015, the Supreme Court released a 150-page document that explained its final ruling of the case. As reported by Milan-based ''
La Gazzetta dello Sport
''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018).
History and profile
''La ...
'', although Moggi's remaining charges being cancelled without a new trial due to statute of limitations, the court made clear that Moggi's unwarranted activities incurred significant damage to Italian football not only in sporting, but also in economic terms. In the document, the court confirmed that Moggi was actively involved in the sporting fraud which was intended to favour Juventus and increase his own personal benefits; according to ''Gazzetta World'', the document also stated that Moggi had "unjustified and excessive power within Italian football", which he used to exert influence over referees, other club officials, and the media, thereby creating "an illegal system to condition matches of the 2004/05 championship (and not just those)." Turin-based''
Tuttosport
''Tuttosport'' is an Italian sport newspaper published in Turin, Italy.
History and profile
''Tuttosport'' was first published on 30 July 1945. Renato Casalbore (who later died in the 1949 Superga air disaster alongside the Il Grande Torino fo ...
''reported: "Justice decided that Moggi and Giraudo actually 'polluted' the system, it decided so in 2006 and didn't want to know or understand other truths. Indeed, it had already decided it during the investigations, when all the phone calls that could exonerate or alleviate the position of Juventus' executives had not been taken into consideration, to the point of dismantling the very concept of the ''Cupola''. Moggi and Giraudo, therefore, 'polluted' the system: a term that serves to dodge the fact that no judge has ever returned enough evidence to affirm that championship (the subject of investigation was only 2004–05) has actually been altered. Indeed, in the first instance sentence we basically read the opposite." The Supreme Court observed that "the system of the arrangement of the
efereegrids was rather widespread", and the developments in the behavior of Inter Milan's
Giacinto Facchetti
Giacinto Facchetti (; 18 July 1942 – 4 September 2006) was an Italian footballer who played as a left-back for Inter Milan from 1960 to 1978. He later served as Inter chairman from January 2004 until his death in 2006. He played 634 official ga ...
and Milan's
Leonardo Meani were not "deepened by the investigations". On 15 March 2017, Moggi's lifetime ban was definitively confirmed on final appeal.
Having been cleared of wrongdoings and not being liable by other clubs because the 2004–05 season was deemed regular, Juventus appealed to have the two league titles back and damage claims due to disparity of treatment in the sporting trial. In September 2016, the District Court rejected the claim from Juventus because it had no jurisdiction over CONI arbitration chamber's decision made in October 2006. In December 2018, the Supreme Court upheld this District Court's decision on tehnical grounds. In January 2019, Juventus handed another appeal to sports tribunal under CONI to have the 2005–06 Serie A title removed from Inter Milan. The appeal was rejected on 6 May 2019. Further appeals were rejected in 2022 as not admissable.
Verdicts
Initial verdicts (bans July 2006, sentences November 2011) handed out to the following individuals:
*
Luciano Moggi
Luciano Moggi ( born 10 July 1937) is a former Italian association football administrator. He was a club executive for A.S. Roma, Roma, S.S. Lazio, Lazio, Torino F.C., Torino, S.S.C. Napoli, Napoli, and Juventus, leading them to win six leagues ...
: five-year ban from football and five years and four months' imprisonment; acquitted in 2015
*
Antonio Giraudo
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
: five-year ban from football and three years' imprisonment; acquitted in 2015
*
Tullio Lanese
Tullio Lanese (born 10 January 1947, in Messina) is a former Italian football referee and a former President of the Italian Referees Association, the AIA.
Referee
From 1987 to 1992 he held the qualification of international referee, officia ...
: thirty-month ban from football
*
Innocenzo Mazzini: five-year ban from football and 26 months' imprisonment
*
Massimo De Santis
Massimo De Santis (born 8 April 1962) is an Italian former association football referee. De Santis was born in Tivoli, Lazio. In addition to being a former referee, he is also a former police constable. De Santis speaks Italian and English. His ...
: four-year ban from football and 23 months' imprisonment
*
Diego Della Valle
Diego Della Valle (born 30 December 1953) is the chairman of the Italian leather goods company '' Tod's''.
Biography Family, youth and studies
Diego Della Valle is the elder son of Dorino Della Valle and grandson of Filippo Della Valle. Fili ...
: forty-five-month ban from football and fifteen months' imprisonment
*
Andrea Della Valle
Cardinal Andrea della Valle (29 November 1463, in Rome – 3 August 1534) was an Italian clergyman and art collector.
Life
Andrea belonged to an ancient family of Roman nobles. He was the son of Filippo della Valle, a Roman patrician; the fami ...
: three-year ban from football and fifteen months' imprisonment
*
Pierluigi Pairetto
Pierluigi Pairetto (born 15 July 1952 in Turin) is an Italian former football referee. Among the many prestigious games he officiated were the Euro 96 final between Germany and the Czech Republic at Wembley, and the classic USA 94 second-round c ...
: forty-two-month ban from football and sixteen months' imprisonment
*
Pasquale Foti
Pasquale Foti (3 February 1950) is an entrepreneur, and president of Reggina Calcio.
Reggina Calcio
In 1986 Foti became managing director of the newly re-formed and renamed Reggina Calcio. In 1991, he became president. Under his presidency, Regg ...
: thirty-month ban from football and fined €30,000
*
Claudio Lotito: thirty-month ban from football and seventeen months' imprisonment
*
Leonardo Meani: thirty-month ban from football and one year's imprisonment
*
Sandro Mencucci
Sandro Mencucci () is an Italian businessman and senior international sports executive. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Leeds United Football Club which competes in the Premier League. Mencucci is also currently CEO of U.S. Le ...
: thirty-month ban from football and fifteen months' imprisonment
*
Fabrizio Babini: three-month ban from football
*
Gennaro Mazzei: six-month ban from football
*
Adriano Galliani
Adriano Galliani (born 30 July 1944) is an Italian entrepreneur and football executive who is the CEO of club Monza.
He is known for being former vice-chairman and CEO of AC Milan from 1986 to 2017, a period in the club's history known as t ...
: nine-month ban from football
*
Gianluca Paparesta: three-month ban from football
*
Claudio Puglisi: three-month ban from football and one year's imprisonment and fined €20,000
*
Franco Carraro
Franco Carraro (born 6 December 1939) is an Italian sport manager and politician.
Career
Carraro was born on 6 December 1939 in Padua, at the time Kingdom of Italy. He worked in many high-profile roles in the public and private sectors. He ...
: fined €80,000
*
Salvatore Racalbuto
Salvatore may refer to:
* Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name
* "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015
* Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band
* '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
: one year and eight months' imprisonment
*
Paolo Bertini: seventeen months' imprisonment
*
Antonio Dattilo
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
: seventeen months' imprisonment
*
Stefano Titomanlio: one year's imprisonment and fined €20,000
Impact and reception
The scandal hit hard on Italian football, with its top league (Serie A) being considered the top European league, one of the best, and the golden age of football throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. The case remains controversial and divisive, especially between the FIGC, Inter Milan, and Juventus, mainly due to Juventus' harsh punishment, as well as the FIGC's decision to have the 2005–06 ''scudetto'' assigned to Inter Milan, both of which are criticized, and resulted in Italian football decline and supporters' exodus. In September 2011, the polling company Demos & Pi published in ''
la Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'' found that of those in the population who defined themselves as ''
tifosi
Tifosi () is a group of supporters of a sports team, especially those that make up a tifo.
Etymology
It is erroneously claimed that "In Italian, literally means those infected by typhus disease, a reference to someone acting in a fevered man ...
'' dropped from 52% to 45%; in addition, the poll showed that 55% of ''tifosi'' were suspicious whenever a referee makes a mistake. The poll found that 56.5% of the sample examined was sceptical of the regularity of the decisions taken by sports justice, while 24.9% judged the ''Calciopoli'' scandal "as a case of sports justice that led to the right decisions." 43.5% of the same sample said that the 2005–06 title "
houldnot be awarded to anyone", compared to 33.7% who believed that the title should remain at Inter Milan, or be given to other clubs. In addition, the poll revealed that Juventus remained the most supported club at 30%, followed by Inter Milan at 19%, and Milan at 16%, while Inter Milan became the most hated, surpassing Juventus; polarization increased, with 10% more supporters expressing hatred towards at least one club, for a total of 50%, and with militant,
ultras
Ultras are a type of association football fans who are renowned for their fanatical support. The term originated in Italy, but is used worldwide to describe predominantly organised fans of association football teams. The behavioural tende ...
groups holding a bigger share of ''
tifo
Tifo () is the phenomenon whereby tifosi of a sports team makes a visual display of any choreographed flag, sign or banner in the stands of a stadium, mostly as part of an association football match.
Tifos are most commonly seen in important m ...
''. When Juventus returned to win in an unprecedented nine-year consecutive championship run, even as the club was absolved and no match involving Juventus was altered, discussions and accusations without evidence, as no other championship other than that of 2004–05 has been investigated, "a new ''Calciopoli''" emerged. Two commonly cited events, with high-profile refereeing mistakes, are two Juventus matches — one against Milan in 2012, the other against Inter Milan in 2018.
Supporters of the trials, such as prosecutor
Giuseppe Narducci, journalist
Marco Travaglio
Marco Travaglio (; born 13 October 1964) is an Italian investigative journalist, writer and opinion leader, editor of the independent journal ''Il Fatto Quotidiano''.
Biography
Travaglio was born in Turin and earned a degree in history from th ...
, and coach
Zdeněk Zeman, cite Moggi's guilty verdict, and the court's view that he was the promoter of the criminal conspiracy that culminated in ''Calciopoli'' as evidence that the scandal was real. Critics respond that the first investigation was conducted too hastily, question why wiretaps implicated many other clubs were not revealed earlier, and state that it was not legal, as wiretaps were obtained through illegal means, or that too much weight was given to them, and many of Moggi's wiretaps were decontextualized. In addition, they argue that convictions, such as Moggi's, did not give weight to later developments, such as several points of the prosecution being contradicted, other clubs' involvement which was not not considered due to the fact they came to light after the statute of limitation, that the season was deemed fair and legitimate, as no match result was altered, and Juventus did not violate Article 6 ("sporting illicit", which warrants relegation), and was only charged through a newly made-up rule in the Code of Sports Justice after the events, while other clubs (Inter Milan, Livorno, and Milan) were found to have directly violated Article 6 according to the FIGC chief investigator Stefano Palazzi, whose earlier charges in the first phase were mostly confirmed. Moggi's legal defence asked the Naples court to take this in consideration but the court denied it, arguing that it was a reassessment of the facts not permitted at that time.
Juventus' harsh punishment was subjected to criticism, even more so due to later developments and investigations, and several critics argue that only Juventus was truly punished, while other clubs or executives were not punished as harshly, or got away from it, and Italian football is in no better shape than it was then. Juventus' owners and legal defense, especially in the first phase when they renounced their appeal to the TAR and did not defend the club effectively, is also criticized; some critics alleged that several Juventus' then-owners and board of directors took their personal interests and relations above that of the club, or that they wanted to get rid of Moggi and Giraudo, both of whom were becoming major Juventus shareholders. ''Il processo illecito'' and ''Juventus il processo farsa: inchiesta verità su Calciopoli'' took a critical look at the case, citing several inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and still unclear aspects; several observers, including some supporters of the trials, said there were inconsistencies and there remains some unclear aspects, for instance how the 2015 final ruling, as commented by
Giovanni Capuano Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...
for ''
Panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
'', "further reduce
the perimeter of Moggi's ''cupola'', the system that led to the sports verdict of the summer of 2006: could the
ports
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...
directors (Moggi and Giraudo),
he referee designatorsPairetto, Mazzini, and only
he refereesDe Santis with Racalbuto be enough?" Moggi's legal defence commented: "This trial starts with about fifty suspects including referees and
efereeassistants plus the leaders of the
talian FootballFederation, today this mega criminal association is reduced to two referees and three matches. Once all the skimmings have been made,
ith
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
the referees and
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
assistants acquitted, Moggi would have done all sports fraud alone. He would sit down and say, 'I will change the match score in the morning.'" Some of Italian media's reaction and behavior, including sensationalism, was also subjected to criticism.
Reactions
During the sports trial in July 2006, some political forces, such as
Forza Italia
Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...
and
Popolari UDEUR, tried to promote the idea of an
amnesty
Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...
, as it was done after the
1980 Totonero scandal for the
1982 FIFA World Cup
The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...
, in the event of the victory of
Italy national football team
The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...
at the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
, which ended up occurring.
Giovanna Melandri
Giovanna Melandri (born 28 January 1962 in New York City) is an Italians, Italian politician. She was an MP in the Italian Parliament for 18 years (1994-2012) and held the positions of Minister of Culture (1998- 2001) and Minister of Youth and ...
, then-
Minister of Youth Policies and Sport from the
Democrats of the Left
The Democrats of the Left ( it, Democratici di Sinistra, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy.
The DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger of th ...
, firmly rejected the amnesty hypothesis, calling it "an idiocy".
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; sc, Frantziscu Maurìtziu Còssiga, ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian pol ...
, former
President of Italy
The president of Italy, officially denoted as president of the Italian Republic ( it, Presidente della Repubblica Italiana) is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian poli ...
and
Prime Minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...
, criticized the scandal's effect on individuals, such as then-Juventus player
Gianluca Pessotto attempting suicide, and compared it to the ''
Mani pulite
''Mani pulite'' (; Italian language, Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called "History of the Italian Republic#First ...
'' scandal's aftermath. Cossiga also expressed strong words and criticism for the FIGC's Federal Court of Appeal.
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
, former Prime Minister of Italy and then-Milan owner and president, rejected an amnesty but added: "Any sanctions must not hit the players, many of whom, among other things, have just shown on the pitch that they are the best in the world, and don't deserve to go to
erie
Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
B or
erie
Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
C. And then the fans, who have no responsibility." About the trial, Berlusconi stated: "This is a trial without the indispensable characteristics of certainty, which any trial should have, for at least three reasons. First: not all the telephone calls from the judges were heard. Second: not all the witnesses were heard. Third: the reality of the pitch has highlighted situations different from those that should have occurred. They all seem to me sufficient reasons to affirm that there is no guarantee of reaching conclusions based on the facts, by the judges." About relegations, of which all involved clubs at that time were sanctioned for, Berlusconi said: "I'm against every club's relegations and I don't speak as the president of Milan. I'm against it because relegating a club like Juventus would also damage the interests of third parties. In fact, how many clubs without any fault of their own would be forced to give up the proceeds of a match against Juventus? And then we must also think about the damage that is created to sponsors and television companies that had already signed onerous contracts." With only Juventus relegated, the
2006–07 Serie B championship had better TV ratings than the
2006–07 Serie A championship. Juventus' matches were the most watched, the stadiums had better revenues, and were sold-out whenever Juventus played; Serie A returned to be competitive only when Juventus came back to Serie A for the
2007–08 Serie A
The 2007–08 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 106th season of top-tier Italian football, the 76th in a round-robin tournament. It started on 25 August 2007 and ended on 18 May 2008. Internazionale successfully ...
championship.
In December 2007, before its own club was found in the 2011 Palazzi report to have violated both Article 1 and Article 6, Berlusconi stated: "Calciopoli was all a hoax, did you understand it or not? Some clubs had influence and claimed it, and we have lost a few ''scudetti''." In response,
Gavino Angius
Gavino Angius (born 18 November 1946) is an Italian politician.
Biography
Born at Sassari (Sardinia), after the degree in Political Sciences, he became a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), for which he was secretary of his city's secti ...
, then-senator from the
Democratic Left and a Roma supporter, commented: "A hoax? I doubt that Siena and Empoli had the strength to plot against Milan. Berlusconi should speak out and call into question the ''Nerazzurri'' cousins
nter Milanbecause they are those who he should be referring to."
Maurizio Paniz, then-deputy from Forza Italia and president of the Juventus Club of
Montecitorio
The Palazzo Montecitorio () is a palace in Rome and the seat of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian Parliament.
History
The palace's name derives from the slight hill on which it is built, which was claimed to be the ''Mons ...
, rejoiced: "I agree. ''Calciopoli'' was a frame with which Italy got hurt in front of the world. And Juve as a club, players, fans, and shareholders had unduly paid."
Sporting trial
Writing for ''
Il Foglio
''Il Foglio'' (English: "The Paper") is an Italian centrist daily newspaper with circulation around 25.000 copies per day (with an overall spread of 47.000). It was founded in 1996 by the Italian journalist and politician Giuliano Ferrara after ...
'',
Christian Rocca stated: "For a week, Italians have had media proof that Juventus is buying referees. But this 'proof' comes from a request for dismissal which, on the contrary and without any doubt, proves how Juventus didn't buy the referees." Italian magistrate
Marcello Maddalena justified the dismissal because it is "an investigation undoubtedly destined to last for years and to fill the pages of newspapers and radio and television broadcasts forever, but for the start of which, it is repeated, it hasn't remained at the state (after all the investigations that have been carried out), not even a shred of 'news' that allows it." About Juventus' punishment, Rocca wrote: "In a normal country there would have been a public apology to Juventus and only, I repeat only, a severe ethical and disciplinary judgment against the designator of the referees and the director of a sports club caught having too close relations. Rome and Naples
rialsconcern something else, as far as we know: the management of players, not referees."
Writing for ''
Il Tirreno
''Il Tirreno'' (English: "The Tyrrhenian") is a regional Italian newspaper, printed in Livorno and serving the Tuscany region. ''Il Tirreno'' also features sixteen local editions around the whole region.
History
It was founded in 1877 under th ...
'',
Enzo Biagi
Enzo Biagi (; 9 August 1920 – 6 November 2007) was an Italian journalist, writer and former partisan.
Life and career
Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. In 1952, he worked on the screenpla ...
stated: "
his was acrazy ruling, and not because football is a clean environment. A crazy ruling because it's built on nothing, on wiretaps that are difficult to interpret and can't be proposed in a
rial Rial, riyal, or RIAL may refer to:
* Rial (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name)
* Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, McGill University
* Rial Racing, a former German Formula One team
Various currencies named rial ...
procedure worthy of the name, a crazy sentence because it punishes those who were guilty only of living in a certain environment, all seasoned with a process that was a re-edition of the Holy Inquisition in a modern key." Biagi wondered whether Moggi has been identified as "the villain to be fed to the populace" amid numerous other scandals in the country at that time, including the
SISMI-Telecom scandal
The SISMI-Telecom scandal, uncovered in Italy in 2006, refers to a surveillance scandal believed to have begun in 1996, under which more than 5,000 persons' phones were tapped.
First arrests
As part of the judiciary investigation on the '' Im ...
. Biagi's words would be later revoked due to the ''
Calciopoli bis
''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A and to a lesser extent Serie B. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian footbal ...
'' developments. Among others, former Milan and Italy national football team coach
Arrigo Sacchi
Arrigo Sacchi (born 1 April 1946) is an Italian former professional football coach. He has twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success. He won the Serie A title in his 1987–88 debut season and then dominated European ...
opined that Moggi was a scapegoat for "an environment with connivance and collusion", and of a sporting culture that "did not allow us to know how to lose." About the court's rulings, Sacchi stated: "We had three judicial bodies and all three expressed themselves in a different way from the other: either the first sentence was wrong, or the second or the third."
Corrado De Biase, the head of the investigation office at the time of the
1980 Totonero betting scandal, stated: "First of all, we must have the courage to affirm a reality: this summer's procedure gave birth to an authentic legal abort. When I speak of 'legal abort' I take full responsibility for what I say. When you want to complete a procedure in two weeks that would take at least 6 months just for a correct investigative process, it can only result in a legal abort. When, for reasons of time, a degree of judgment is received, when the defendants are prevented from bringing witnesses, dossiers and films in their defense, but only 15 minutes are allowed for a defense, one can only speak of legal abort. When the defense lawyers of the accused are not granted the full texts of the wiretaps, alleging that they are not pertinent, we can only speak of legal abort. Finally, when a title is disassigned to a club, Juventus, to assign it to another, Inter Milan, before the verdict of the first preliminary iter is pronounced, then we are well beyond legal abort. It's not a problem of ordinary or sporting justice: in any country that defines itself as civil, any penalties and sanctions must be imposed after a guilty verdict has been recorded, never before. And don't talk to me about UEFA regulations or lists to be given to the same for the European cups: the rights of the accused, including that of being able to defend themselves with the means that the law makes available to them, come before a football match." About punishments, De Biase stated: "I, on my own, can only reiterate the concept already expressed: a penalty of 8/10 points, a fine, and a ban of Moggi and Giraudo for 10/12 months, this was the appropriate penalty in my opinion. Any parallel with the story of 1980 is unthinkable: here there're no traces of offence, nor of money or checks. The environmental offence isn't a crime covered by any code, unless we're talking about air pollution."
Citing numerous quotes, Emanuele Boffi for ''Tempi'' wondered whether the real scandal was the way it was told, and how through "
ges and pages of poison reports" the defendants "Moggi & co were already convicted before the sentences." Boffi wrote that "the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office, which had first viewed all the wiretaps, had dismissed the case as 'the accusatory hypotheses are without confirmation' and for 'the absence of any useful information on any corruption.' Marcello Maddalena, prosecutor of the Turin Republic, also reiterates this in a letter to the newspaper ''
La Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'', which the day before had accused him of 'investigative shyness.' Maddalena writes that no evidence emerged from the interceptions that would confirm the original investigative hypothesis (corruption of a public official) for which they had been authorized.' And on the other hand, as Borrelli declares, on the day of the interrogations of the referees, 'there're no ''
pentiti
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
'' (June 8). But the culprits were already there."
As recounted by Boffi, magistrates
Antonio Di Pietro
Antonio Di Pietro (; born 2 October 1950) is an Italian politician, lawyer and magistrate. He was a minister in government of Romano Prodi, a Senator, and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a prosecutor in the ''Mani Pulite'' corrupti ...
and
Nello Rossi had "some professional qualms about reading verbal or wiretapping all the holy days, maybe even the right and left justicialists should ask some questions." ''
Il Corriere della Sera'' reported: "We're facing a demonization. Ours is a country of civil guarantees. For now we only know the press reports, however, emphasized with this system of advertising wiretapping, a barbaric system. The laws on the violation of the secret of investigation never find condemnation for those who have violated them. We thought that wiretapping was a prerogative of the fascist regime and instead, obviously, this isn't the case." Article 114 of the Code of Criminal Procedure stated that "the publication, even partial or summarized, by means of the press or other means of dissemination, of the documents covered by secrecy or even their content alone is prohibited." Former Italy national football team coach
Giovanni Trapattoni
Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), sometimes popularly known as "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Italian football. A former defensive midfielder, as a p ...
stated: "Anyone who is indignant is a hypocrite, speaking of a dome is an exaggeration." In writing about the press' comparisons to
Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
and
criminal association
In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance o ...
, Boffi stated that it was "
system ... meticulously tried in the press and somewhat hastily in the courtroom", quoting the defendant
Massimo De Santis
Massimo De Santis (born 8 April 1962) is an Italian former association football referee. De Santis was born in Tivoli, Lazio. In addition to being a former referee, he is also a former police constable. De Santis speaks Italian and English. His ...
as saying: "In seven thousand pages there's no trace of a phone call from me with Moggi. I was judged in the newspapers and on TV. I got to know the developments of the investigations by going to newsstands."
''La Repubblica'', which took a ''colpevolisti'' stance, expressed some doubts. The paper reported: "No witnesses were admitted to the trial. Even the worst of criminals has the right to a testimony in favour. The sprint start of the public prosecutor Palazzi was a rash step. The approach of the trial is singular. Strange that no one asks questions ... , we go into little on the merits. The speed is understandable, but in the 1980s
ootball betting scandaland in many other cases the judging committees went late at night." De Biase stated: "I have only read detached sentences in the newspapers, I don't think I have read about a sporting offence to alter the result. I don't seem to have seen matches bought or sold. When I hear from Commissioner Rossi that he will do everything himself and that can come to judgment even without questioning, there is something that does not add up." Lawyer Gaetano Scalise commented: "The special commissioner of the FIGC has given us only three days to study thousands and thousands of papers and present briefs. Do you understand what I'm talking about?" About one wiretap in which Giraudo stated of a referee that "if he's smart, he halves Udinese", De Santis commented: "'I enjoyed downloading the call times from the internet. And if you check them too, you will understand everything.' Was the phone call after the offending match? 'That's right.'" About
Francesco Saverio Borrelli
Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include:
People with the given name Francesco
* Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...
, journalist
Giorgio Bocca
Giorgio Valentino Bocca (28 August 1920 – 25 December 2011) was an Italian essayist and journalist, also known for his participation in the World War II partisan movement.
Biography
Bocca was born in Cuneo, Piedmont, the son of teachers, an ...
stated: "The appointment of Borrelli to direct the investigation into the great football scandal is the litmus test, the chemical reagent, the proof of truth, the fall of lies, the naked king of the Berlusconi people who 'don't give up', who don't tolerate returns to justice, who conceive democracy only as an alliance of the strongest and richest clans."
Naples trial and Supreme Court
Upon hearing one new wiretap and other wiretaps implicating Inter Milan, journalist Elio Corno stated: "Only for this phone call
eferring to a 26 November 2004 wiretap between Carraro, former president of the FIGC, and Bergamo, former referee designator, who was asked to not favour Juventus against Inter Milan the ''Calciopoli'' trial had to be annulled, it had to be immediately annulled." In another TV broadcast, Corno stated: "May we say, with great honesty, that this ''Calciopoli'' sporting trial was a farce?" Journalist
Giuseppe Cruciani
Giuseppe Cruciani (born 15 September 1966) is an Italian radio personality, shock jock, television presenter and journalist. He is known in Italy for his provocative and irreverent manner.
''La Zanzara''
Alongside David Parenzo, Cruciani is th ...
stated: "I'm not a Juventus fan. I sympathize with the ''Bianconeri'' from 2006 onwards because I believe that what happened to Juventus with ''Calciopoli'' was a great injustice and I'm on the side of those who are against injustices." Journalist
Oliviero Beha
Oliviero Beha (14 January 1949 – 13 May 2017) was an Italian journalist, writer, essayist, TV, and radio host.
Biography
Beha was born in Florence, and began work as a journalist in 1973 for the sports newspaper ''Tuttosport'' and for ''Paese ...
saw Moggi as a scapegoat; in 2011, he wrote that "Moggi, branded as the
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...
of football, served perfectly as a stopper for a bottle of bad liqueur for public drunkenness, ending up in a trap." In November 2021, Italy's Supreme Court confirmed the sentence against
RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
to compensate the relatives of Beha, who had died in 2017, with €180,000 for having subjected him to demotion between 2008 and 2010 due to his critical positions on the ''Calciopoli'' trials.
During the Naples trial in 2010, lawyer Flavia Tortorella of the
Italian Footballers' Association
The Italian Footballers' Association (Italian: ''Associazione Italiana Calciatori''), also referred to by the acronym AIC, is the association for footballers in Italy. It was established in 1968 and currently has 4,500 members, of which 2,500 ar ...
, said: "Rather than asking myself why it happened, I would ask myself questions about what will happen in the future, when the investigation of the fact in criminal proceedings arrives. ''Calciopoli'', at least legally speaking, was this: the sporting trial had to be managed in a different way, in the sense that the proceedings had to necessarily wait for the investigation of the fact in a criminal case, first of all because the sporting legislation at that historical moment was not ripe for contain a case of this kind. The legislation, the Sports Justice Code, which is the current one with some changes that have occurred from 2006 to today, was by no means a code that could contain a sporting proceeding of that magnitude and provide for sanctions regulations for that type of offence, and in fact they invented, so to speak, the structured offence because for the types of offence codified and typified within the code of sporting justice absolutely could neither be initiated nor terminated in that way a procedure of that type." In an interview with ''
Tuttosport
''Tuttosport'' is an Italian sport newspaper published in Turin, Italy.
History and profile
''Tuttosport'' was first published on 30 July 1945. Renato Casalbore (who later died in the 1949 Superga air disaster alongside the Il Grande Torino fo ...
'', lawyer Paolo Rodella stated: "Compared to the summer of 2006, new facts are emerging. Wanting to be flexible, we can even think of a revision on the basis of the interceptions presented in Naples. They clearly constitute elements that, if they were already known by the sports justice bodies, they would have influenced the sentence, which would have been of a different nature, at least on the plurality of the subjects sanctioned."
After the Naples trial, Carlo Rossini reported that "Juventus has been acquitted, the offending championships (2004/2005 and 2005/2006) have been declared regular, and the reasons for the conviction of Luciano Moggi are vague; mostly, they condemn his position, that he was in a position to commit a crime. In short, be careful to enter a shop without surveillance because even if you don't steal, you would have had the opportunity. And go on to explain to your friends that you're honest people after the morbid and pro-sales campaign of the newspapers." Rossini criticized some in the media, writing that "a club has been acquitted, and no one has heard of it, and whoever has heard of it, they don't accept it. The verdict of 2006, made in a hurry, was acceptable, that of Naples was not. The problem then lies not so much in vulgar journalism as in readers who accept the truths that are convenient. Juventus was, rightly or wrongly, the best justification for the failures of others, and it was in popular sentiment, as evidenced by the new controversies concerning 'The System.' But how? Wasn't the rotten erased?" About the latter, Rossini said that, according to Moratti, referees have been wrong in good faith since 2006, and stated that "it isn't a question of ''tifo'', but of a critical spirit, of the desire to deepen and not be satisfied with the headlines (as did Oliviero Beha, a well-known ''Viola''
iorentinafan, who, however, drew conclusions outside the chorus because, despite enjoying it as a ''tifoso'', he suffered as a journalist. He wasn't satisfied and went into depth. He was one of the few)."
In 2015, journalist Giuliano Vaciago wrote: "The first instance ruling of Casoria and the famous Palazzi report (the one in which the public prosecutor of the FIGC considers Inter Milan liable to sporting offences in light of the new interceptions) would be enough to appear in front of the FIGC and reopen the 2006 folders. There's no need to repoen the sentences of the Supreme Court to rewrite history, just read well the first instance one and listen to the trial that produced it. And nothing remains of the sporting trial." In response to former Juventus' player
Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit fo ...
, who dubbed ''Calciopoli'' as "
bit crazy and unusual, strange from many points of view", journalist Marcello Chirico stated that "Del Piero is right to be amazed again, even 14 years later. Something anomalous happened that summer, and the anomaly was also perpetrated in the years to come with the ordinary process and subsequent appeals. The most compromising phone calls with the
efereedesignators (authorized by the system of the time, it's always good to remember) were made by other clubs, and not by Juve. It's all documented. However, Juventus was sent to Serie B all the same and someone else, who explicitly asked to be able to win a match and pilot the referee draw, received a ''scudetto'' as a gift. All this is also documented through very explicit phone call records." Journalist Roberto Renga, who was also active as a journalist during the Totonero scandal in the 1980s, sees ''Calciopoli'' as an injustice, in regards to Juventus' treatment. In 2018, he commented: "As you know, I'm not a Juventus fan, but I'm a football fan, of teams that work and do well. And I get attached to those who have suffered abuse."
Defendants and referees
Moggi always declared himself innocent, and in his appeals to the European courts stated that "if they give me a pardon, I renounce it. Pardon is for those who are guilty, I'm not guilty
f the 'criminal association' charge I didn't do anything
riminal They weren't angry at me, they were angry at Juventus because it won too much." About his actions, Moggi stated that they were critizable, and he was wrong from an ethical standpoint but did not commit any illicit; Moggi said that "
e sports court, at the end of the trial, ruled as follows: 'Regular championship, no match altered.' Therefore Juventus
sexempt from crimes referred to in Art. 6. The final ruling of the ordinary justice instead spoke of 'early consummation' crimes, which are nothing more than the fruit of hypotheses and inferences of that prosecutor who in the courtroom had asserted 'there were no other phone calls, if not those of the suspects in the trial', while the
talian FootballFederation Prosecutor asserted that 'Inter Milan was the club that risked most of all for the illegal behavior of its President Facchetti." About the Swiss sim cards, Moggi stated that he used them to circumvent "those
uch as Inter Milan and Inter Milan's Telecomwho intercepted us", with reference to transfer operations, noting that "
had bought
Stanković
Stanković ( sr-cyr, Станковић, ) is a common surname derived from the South Slavic masculine given name Stanko. Stanković is the eighth most frequent surname in Serbia, and is also common in Croatia, with 2,842 carriers (2011 census). ...
and we also had the contract ready to be presented to the
talian FootballFederation. After two months the player and his agent disappeared, we found them at Inter Milan." About the wiretaps, Moggi said that he never intruded on the designation of referees, and spoke of incomplete wiretaps for the prosecution. Moggi also reiterated that "
ey accused me of going to the referees' locker room but that's not true; others did. Paparesta's kidnapping never happened, it was just a joke." In 2014, Agnelli stated: "Moggi represents a beautiful and important part of our history. We are the country of Catholicism and forgiveness. We can also forgive people, can't we?" Moggi responded: "Nice words. I thank Andrea Agnelli, but I don't need forgiveness. If anything, I deserve praise for
he 16 trophies won on the pitch for the club ... There were twenty clubs and they behaved in the same way but only Juve paid because it bothered."
The defendants implicated with Moggi were stunned by the charges and conviction of criminal association. Of the alleged seven-consecutive falsified championship, they mentioned that Juventus controversially lost out two, both of which were consecutively won for the first time in Italian football history by two Southern clubs (the first by Lazio in 2000 during the
Jubilee in the Catholic Church
A jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In '' Leviticus'', a jubilee year ( he, יובל ''yūḇāl'') is mentioned to occur every 50th year; during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgi ...
, and the second by Roma during the ''Passaportopoli'' scandal, which did not involve Juventus), and only won another championship (that of 5 May 2002) due to what was called "Inter Milan's
ootballsuicide". Bergamo, one of the referee designators implicated, stated: "But I talked to everyone, that's what
hen-FIGC president Carraro wanted. And I dined with everyone: with the late
Franco Sensi
Francesco Sensi, Cavaliere del lavoro (29 July 1926 – 17 August 2008) was an Italian oil tycoon. He was born in Rome, where he lived throughout his entire life, though he also served time as mayor of Visso, the city where his family came from ...
, with
Tanzi and
Sacchi Sacchi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Ada Sacchi Simonetta (1874–1944), Italian librarian and women's rights activist
*Andrea Sacchi (1599–1661), Italian Baroque painter
* Antonio Sacchi (died 1694), Italian B ...
, with
Spalletti,
Spinelli Spinelli is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Altiero Spinelli (1907–1986), Italian advocate for European federalism and founding father of the European Union
* Anita Spinelli (1908-2010), Swiss artist and painter
* ...
,
nd Aliberti. Then I invite home
Facchetti,
Galliani, and those of Juve, when the championship is now over but only with the ''Bianconeri'' do I find myself at home surrounded by the ''
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
'', the photo stalking,
ndthe wiretapping. Yet the invitation to Facchetti and Galliani I did by phone! Nothing, nothing comes back to me in this investigation and its shortcomings; my wife used the Swiss
hone Honing is a kind of metalworking.
Hone may also refer to:
* Hone (name) (incl. Hōne), a list of people with the surname, given name or nickname
* Hõne language
Hõne is a Jukunoid language spoken in Gombe State and Taraba State, Nigeria
...
card. With
Nucini's fabrication of history: he meets Moggi, he becomes a partner, and we no longer put him in Serie A. There was no
riminalaffiliation: he was
imply
Implication may refer to:
Logic
* Logical consequence (also entailment or logical implication), the relationship between statements that holds true when one logically "follows from" one or more others
* Material conditional (also material conse ...
mediocre!" Like fellow referees
Pierluigi Collina
Pierluigi Collina (; born 13 February 1960) is an Italian former football referee. He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998-2003.
Collina is still ...
and
Roberto Rosetti
Roberto Rosetti (born 18 September 1967) is an Italian former football referee. He is fluent in Italian (native), English and French. He started refereeing in 1983, and took charge of his first match in the Italian Serie A in 1996. He received hi ...
,
Paolo Tagliavento stated to have never received any pressure, and testified: "I was never pressured by the
efereedesignator or De Santis. For a referee it's easier to reff a derby than being in a courtroom, I'm not at ease here."
Former referee and defendant De Santis, convicted of criminal association as a simple associate with Moggi, was also upset by the rulings, and feel that Italian football is no better today than it was at that time. De Santis recalled that he was called a ''juventino'' for disallowing
Fabio Cannavaro
Fabio Cannavaro (; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian professional football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of club Benevento.
A centre-back, he spent the majority of his career in Italy. He started his career at Napo ...
's regular goal in a Juventus–Parma match of the
1999–00 Serie A that was won by the former 1–0, for which he made ''
mea culpa
' is a Latin phrase that means "my fault" or "my mistake" and is an acknowledgement of having done wrong. The expression is used also as an admission of having made a mistake that should have been avoided, and may be accompanied by beating the br ...
'' and stated it was one of many honest, good-faith mistakes in his career, which he realized upon re-watching the events, but that he was never a Juventus supporter, and he was not favoured by Moggi. De Santis felt that he was the sole referee to pay, as he was the only convicted referee, and stated: "The 2004–2005 championship was regular. The sentences are clear: no match
asaltered. All the referees were acquitted. The only three matches that ended up as 'fixed' have never been tried but only theorized. There were flaws that neither the Court of Appeal nor that of Cassation wanted to discover,
nlyfollowing the initial theory
f Moggi's criminal associationinstead of seeking the truth. I have never had any
wiss SIM I have proved it in the documentation presented to the trials. Am I the only referee who has not freed myself from the shoals of the prosecution? At first, I was seen as a promoter of the association, then only as a simple associate. It was necessary to ascertain the truth, not to frame people in a theorem that is the child of the Pirelli files."
About Berlusconi, Moggi said: "I thanked him and I thank him for his esteem for me, maybe I reserve him a criticism for what he didn't do to the ''Calciopoli'' explosion: he knew that innocent people would be penalized, obviously for him too it was a priority to demolish Juventus' domain." Moggi also said that Berlusconi wanted him at Milan, and during a private meeting to discuss the matter revealed to him that "the FIGC possessed some of
oggi'swiretaps without any criminal value, of which Galliani (then-vice-president of Milan and president of Lega Calcio), Carraro (then-president of the FIGC),
ndGeneral Pappa, head of the investigations office of the FIGC, were also aware." Moggi stated that those same wiretaps were made public just a few days after. Moggi had earlier said that Galliani made ''Calciopoli'' come out because Berlusconi wanted him at Milan. In regard to the dispute between the FIGC and Juventus, Moggi responded to then-FIGC president
Carlo Tavecchio
Carlo Tavecchio (born 13 July 1943) is an Italian politician, sports executive, and administrator.
Career
For four legislatures, he held the office of Mayor of Ponte Lambro. For 15 years, he was president of an amateur company. From 1987 to 1992 ...
: "From the trials, it turns out that there has been no alteration of the championship, there has been no alteration of the referee grids, even 30 referees were acquitted of the charges. I've helped some of these acquitted referees, I've helped many financially. Poor boys, I felt sorry for them, they didn't know how to pay the lawyer. They were ruined by ''Calciopoli''." About the Supreme Court's sentence, Moggi reiterated his innocence of the criminal association charge, and added: "The Supreme Court speaks of power. But power isn't a crime. I had power because I worked well, it was power because of the quality of the work
s general directorI did." Apart from Milan, Moggi stated that he was also sought by Inter Milan. Citing
Gianni Agnelli
Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce a ...
's quote that "the king's groom must have known all the horse thieves", Moggi discussed how "Agnelli said that because during my time it was full of
sons of bitches
''Sons of Bitches'' (russian: link=no, Сукины дети, translit. Sukiny deti) is a 1990 Soviet drama film directed by Leonid Filatov. It was entered into the 17th Moscow International Film Festival.
Plot
The plot of the film is bas ...
. And he wanted an expert, one who could stand up to these here. For me it's a compliment."
In 2017, Moggi said that "VAR was supposed to be the end of the controversy,
utnothing has changed. ''Calciopoli'' would have broken out anyway. Five referees were acquitted, Racalbuto had the statute of limitation, and only De Santis was convicted; as the rulings say, the matches and the leagues have not been altered. What happened on the pitch was just a pretext used to take out those who at that moment had the most skills and obtained the most successes." When Agnelli, among others, was investigated by the
public prosecutor's office
Public prosecutor's offices are criminal justice bodies attached to the judiciary.
They are separate from the courts in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and are called the Staatsanwaltschaft.
This kind of office als ...
of Turin on the management of tickets at the
Juventus Stadium
Juventus Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as the Allianz Stadium since July 2017, sometimes simply known in Italy as the Stadium ( it, Lo Stadium), is an all-seater football stadium in the Vallette borough of Turin, Italy, and the home o ...
about the alleged infiltration of the
'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a prominent Italian Mafia-type organized crime syndicate and secret society, criminal society based in the peninsular and mountainous region of Calabria and dating back to the late 18th century. It is considered one of ...
in the commercial management of the club's tickets, Moggi stated: "For those who know Andrea, it's an accusation that would make people laugh rather than cry,
hich was
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District (Ijrud County), Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 72 ...
bounced on all the newspapers despite the denials of the Federal Prosecutor,
Giuseppe Pecoraro. Juve is again under attack from those who can't beat them on the pitch. What happened in 2006 wasn't enough."
FIGC–Inter Milan–Juventus controversy
Inter Milan and Juventus
Before later developments and investigation implicated Inter Milan, among other clubs, Inter Milan felt vindicated by the trial's first phase, as in their view that was the reason why the club did not win in Italy, having at that time lastly won the
1988–89 Serie A championship. Upon being assigned the 2006 ''scudetto'', Inter Milan and their supporters called it ''scudetto degli onesti'' ("''scudetto'' of the honests"). With Juventus' relegation, Inter Milan boasted of becoming the only Serie A club to have never been relegated. Then-Inter Milan owner
Massimo Moratti
Massimo Moratti (born 16 May 1945) is an Italian billionaire petroleum businessman, the former owner of Inter Milan and chairman of the Saras Group, founded in 1962 by his father, industrialist Angelo Moratti. The main production site of the Sara ...
would later state that he did not disdain the 2006 ''scudetto'', as he thought it was just; of the five consecutive championship won by Inter Milan between 2006 and 2010, Moratti stated that the 2006 title was "the most beautiful", and he was proud of it. In response to Moratti's statements, Juventus president
Andrea Agnelli
Andrea Agnelli (; born 6 December 1975) is an Italian businessman. Agnelli served as chairman of Italian football club Juventus F.C. since May 2010 to until his resignation on November 2022 following a Financial Accounts Probe ordered by the Tu ...
stated: "It must be recognized he has a great love for Inter Milan, a great love that led him to accept some follies such as accepting a ''scudetto'' that he didn't win." In spite of the diatribe, when expressing satisfaction at the 2015 Supreme Court ruling, Moratti also stated that he was always friend with Agnelli. Despite more cordiality outside football between the
Agnelli family
The Agnelli family () is an Italian multi-industry business dynasty founded by Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of the Fiat motor company which became Italy's largest automobile manufacturer. They are also primarily known for other ...
and the Moratti family, relations remain damaged by ''Calciopoli'', and the football rivalry increased. Dating back to the 1960s, it represented the battle of oil manufacturer
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational tyre manufacturer based in Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, is the 6th-largest tyre manufacturer and is focused on the consumer production of tyre ...
and automobile manufacturer
FIAT
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
, Milan versus Turin as the battle of the Italian triangle industrial north, and an intra-capitalist conflict. ''Calciopoli'' only strengthened the rivalry, and the ''
Derby d'Italia
The Derby d'Italia ( English: Derby of Italy) is the name of the football derby between Internazionale of Milan and Juventus of Turin. The term was coined back in 1967 by Italian sports journalist Gianni Brera. It is the equivalent of Spain's ...
'' became even bigger than Milan's ''
Derby della Madonnina
The Derby della Madonnina, also known as the Derby di Milano (Milan Derby, in English), is a derby football match between the two prominent Milanese clubs, Internazionale and A.C. Milan. It is called ''Derby della Madonnina'' in honour of one of ...
'', or the Juventus–Milan rivalry in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2013, Moratti was succeeded as president by Indonesian businessman
Erick Thohir
Erick Thohir (born 30 May 1970) is an Indonesian businessman and politician who has served as Indonesia's Minister of State Owned Enterprises since 2019. He is the founder of Mahaka Group, a conglomeration that focuses on media, sports and enter ...
, to whom he sold all his stakes. Relations did not improve, as Juventus continued to appeal and ask for the revision of the proceedings, all the while former Inter Milan board of director and then-FIGC president
Carlo Tavecchio
Carlo Tavecchio (born 13 July 1943) is an Italian politician, sports executive, and administrator.
Career
For four legislatures, he held the office of Mayor of Ponte Lambro. For 15 years, he was president of an amateur company. From 1987 to 1992 ...
's declared sympathy for Inter Milan surfaced, amid photos with Inter Milan's executives and future Chinese ownership. Relations between the two clubs only improved in 2018, as
Zhang Kangyang
Zhang Kangyang or Steven Zhang (; born 21 December 1991) is a Chinese businessman and chairman of the Italian football club Inter Milan.
Biography
Born in Nanjing, Zhang is the son of Chinese billionaire Zhang Jindong, founder and chairman of t ...
, the son of new Chinese owner
Zhang Jindong
Zhang Jindong (; born March 1963) is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur. He is one of the founders and the current honorary chairman of the Suning.com, headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He also owned 100% stake in Suning Holdings Grou ...
through the
Suning Holdings Group
Suning Holdings Group Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese privately held company. The company shared the same founder Zhang Jindong with the listed company Suning.com, but Suning Holdings was the unlisted portion of Zhang's unincorporated Suning Group. Acc ...
, became Inter Milan president. In 2021, Juventus and Inter Milan were two of three Italian clubs (the other was Milan) to take part to the
European Super League
The European Super League (ESL), officially The Super League, was a proposed seasonal club football competition that initially would have been contested by twenty European football clubs, twelve of them being the competition's founding members. ...
project.
Some Inter Milan players, such as
Julio Cruz,
Ronaldo
Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People
Notable people known as Ronaldo include:
As ...
, and long-time captain
Javier Zanetti, felt vindicated by the rulings but said that Juventus was among the best teams.
Alvaro Recoba and
Christian Vieri
Christian "Bobo" Vieri (; born 12 July 1973) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward.
Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning to Italy to pursue his p ...
were one of the few Inter Milan players who did not feel the 2006 ''scudetto'' as theirs, stating that Juventus was the better team, and the 2006 ''scudetto'' belonged to Juventus. In a 2012 interview, Recoba stated: "For my part, I think that Juventus won that ''scudetto'' because they had great players and ...
en it turned out that the ''scudetto'' was awarded to Inter Milan, I thought the players didn't feel it was theirs." Then-Juventus captain
Alessandro Del Piero
Alessandro Del Piero (; born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit fo ...
, who testified that "referee De Santis didn't penalize Ibra
imovicbut was later disqualified with the TV proof for a foul on Cordoba and missed the championship match with Milan", and there was general agreement to play the contested Lecce–Juventus match, stated to have won 17 titles, not 15. He commented: "All the ''scudetti'' won since I have played football have been deserved, be it those of our club or others. At the time, Juve was a very strong team built to win." In 2019,
Fabio Capello
Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional football manager and player.
As a player, Capello represented SPAL 1907, Roma, Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which ...
, Juventus coach from 2004 to 2006, stated: "It seems right to me
hat Juventus appealed to the 2006 decision it's funny that it was assigned to Inter Milan, which finished third and was also under investigation. Guido Rossi decided very hastily because we needed a team that would play in the Champions League. It was unfair, the rules weren't respected, and sports justice couldn't investigate thoroughly."
About the scandal and subsequent trials, Agnelli said: "In 2006, the problem was equal treatment. In a circle of twenty clubs there was a way of behaving that emerged from the proceedings, but now the Juventus fan thinks he was the only one to pay because the others did the same things. And those
ike Inter Milanwho have behaved in the same way can't go out with a ''scudetto'' in their pocket. We can't forget about all this. In Naples there're two criminal proceedings that are coming to an end, then there will be other degrees of judgment, but the court papers give an idea of what happened. When the whole process is completed, we will make a decision. Certainly, however, it makes no sense to speak of a statute of limitation if new facts emerge in the meantime." In 2018,
Giovanni Cobolli Gigli
Giovanni Cobolli Gigli (born 4 January 1945) is an Italian lawyer and the former chairman of Juventus Football Club. He has a business degree from Bocconi University. After starting out working in marketing for a multinational pharmaceutical compa ...
, who became Juventus president after the scandal, stated that Inter Milan "deserved to be punished" for ''Calciopoli'', and expressed regrets for the sporting trials, about which he said: "We were demoted to play the 2006–07 season in Serie B and accepted the ruling. The regret remains for a sporting trial that was, in my view, not conducted in the best way. Certain pieces of evidence were ignored, actually it's more accurate to say hidden, and the existence of other telephone wiretaps regarding different clubs wasn't made known at the time. Inter
ilan Ilan may refer to:
Organization
*ILAN, Israeli umbrella organization for the treatment of disabled children
Given name
*Ilan (name), a Hebrew/Israeli name
* Ilan Bakhar, a retired Israeli footballer
*Ilan Araújo Dall'Igna, a Brazilian footballer ...
too deserved to be punished for what emerged in the various conversations. The FIGC Prosecutor Palazzi said so. It all emerged when the matter missed the statute of limitations and it ended like that."
The diatribe between Moratti and Moggi never ended, and continues to this day. In 2020, Moratti said: "Everything served to create the conditions to triumph, even the misadventures due to having to face a Juve who behaved as they did and fight against a wall that seemed unshakable. Then we managed to break through it, and thus find those satisfactions in which I had always believed but which at a certain point seemed impossible." Moggi recalled a sentence of the Court of Appeal stating that Inter Milan's Facchetti lobbied with the referees, and Palazzi, the federal prosecutor of the time, wrote that Inter Milan was the club that risked most of all, adding: "Moratti has lost another opportunity to shut up. He could celebrate in another way, and maybe those who asked him could ask him if one ruling counts more than another or if the law is really the same for everyone." Appealing to the code, Moggi stated: "Inter Milan was liable for Article 6, which is a sporting offence, Juventus was never liable for Article 6. It's good to remind the gentleman because nobody ever speaks for Juventus, so I do it. There're wiretaps in which Facchetti and Moratti ask a referee to let them win the match, I have never done these things."
Juventus' appeals and damage claims
After ''Calciopoli bis'' implicated almost every Serie A club and the Court of Appeal confirmed the extraneousness of Juventus, the club asked the two championships back in 2011 and sued the FIGC €443.725.200 in damage claims, updated to €581 by 2016, due to being unable to participate UEFA competitions, major money loss from TV rights, as the club was relegated to Serie B, and had to sell major players at cheap prizes. Observers, such as Fulvio Bianchi, said that at that time "Juventus was ... stronger than all those that came after, and had €250 million in revenue, being at the top of Europe, and 100 sponsors. It took ten years to recover and return to the top Italians, not yet Europeans: now the club makes over €300 million, but in the meantime Real, Bayern, and the others have taken off."
In 2015,
Carlo Tavecchio
Carlo Tavecchio (born 13 July 1943) is an Italian politician, sports executive, and administrator.
Career
For four legislatures, he held the office of Mayor of Ponte Lambro. For 15 years, he was president of an amateur company. From 1987 to 1992 ...
, a former Inter Milan's board of director member for four years and former FIGC president from 2014 to 2017, admitted, "as a good, old ''interista''", that "Juventus was clearly the strongest team on the pitch, they won 32 championships: the team didn't steal anything." He expressed frustration at the club's repeated appeals and damage claims to the FIGC, which he described as absurd, and added that "Juve's cause is reckless and, you will see, the FIGC will ask for damages." Tavecchio, who in later years stated to be in good relations with Agnelli and Juventus despite the multimillion-dollar lawsuit, offered to discuss reinstatement of the lost ''scudetti'', as well as reforms in Italian football, in exchange for Juventus dropping the lawsuit. The diatribe between the FIGC and Juventus intensified when Juventus won the club's first championship since the scandal, and continued to add, on both its website and
stadium
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
, the two championships from 2005 and 2006 during the club's record streak of nine-consecutive league titles; this caused some skirmishes between the FIGC and Juventus when Italy football team had to play at the
Juventus Stadium
Juventus Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as the Allianz Stadium since July 2017, sometimes simply known in Italy as the Stadium ( it, Lo Stadium), is an all-seater football stadium in the Vallette borough of Turin, Italy, and the home o ...
, and the club's number of ''scudetti'' had to be covered. About the incident, Tavecchio stated that "the ''Calciopoli'' ruling, which sanctioned the club's behavior off the pitch, is law and we are here to enforce it."
In popular culture
The vicissitudes of ''Calciopoli'' have found ample space in the national and international mass media, influencing the popular imagination and acting as the subject for various types of audiovisual productions. In summer 2006, comedian
Checco Zalone released the song "Siamo una squadra fortissimi" ("We are a very strong team"), a tribute to the Italian national team in the FIFA World Cup in Germany. In the same year, Zalone recorded the song "I juventini" about Juventus' relegation to Serie B. In 2009, the documentary film ''Operation Off Side'' was released about the investigations by the ''
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
'' between 2004 and 2005, while the documentary ''Nel paese di Giralaruota: il grande inganno di Calciopoli'' and the comic series ''Forza Italia'' recount the various part of the scandal. In 2013, the
Rai 3
Rai 3 (formerly Rete 3) is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It was launched on 15 December 1979 and its programming is centred towards cultural and ...
criminological program ''Un giorno in pretura'' showed the depositions provided by prosecution witnesses in the Naples criminal trial and explored the various strands of the investigations that then led to the proceedings. In 2021, a chapter of the Netflix series ''Il lato oscuro dello sport'' is focused on the ''Calciopoli'' investigation fron the prosecutor's side. The following year, the documentary ''Calciopoli – Anatomia di un processo'', where the stages of the investigations and the criminal trial in Naples are recalled, was avaliable through Italy's History channel from the prosecutor's side and focused in the sporting trials.
The scandal was instrumental in coining and popularize several
neologisms
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
, such as ''Farsopoli'' (by critics of the trials), ''scudetto degli onesti'' (by Inter Milan supporters upon being assigned the 2006 ''scudetto''), ''scudetto di cartone'' (by critics of the title assignment's to Inter Milan), ''Rubentus'', and ''prescritti''. The former was coined by supporters of the trials in reference to Juventus' involvement in the scandal, while the latter is used by critics of the trials in reference to Inter Milan's involvement in the scandal, and the club's other scandals resulting, like ''Calciopoli'' and accounting fraud investigations, in the statute of limitation. ''Antijuventino'' and ''antijuventinità'', terms used to describe Juventus' hatred, which intensified during those years, were also popularized. Both of those terms are included in ''
Treccani
The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' (Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language en ...
''s website as neologisms; in addition, the period after ''Calciopoli'' is termed ''post-Calciopoli''.
Explanatory notes, quotes, and wiretaps
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External links
; Complete rulings
Complete record of the FIGC decision, July 2006(in Italian) – via ''La Gazzetta dello Sport''
Complete record of the FIGC decision, June 2011(in Italian) – via the FIGC website
Complete sentence for the November 2011 trial written by the Naples court(in Italian) – via ''La Gazzetta dello Sport''
Complete sentence for the March 2015 trial written by the Supreme Court(in Italian) – via ''Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport''
; Reports
BBC Sport article on the history of similar scandals(in English)
''Calcio Blog'' summary(in Italian)
(in English)
''Sprint e Sport'' article on the history of similar scandals(in Italian)
''The Sunday Business Post'' report(in English)
; Websites
Analysis on the controversies surrounding the scandal
Italian website analyzing the scandal(in Italian)
Juventus' minority shareholders website with documents and analysis on the scandal(in Italian)
Penalties and point-deductions in Italian football history(in Italian)
{{match fixing in association football
2005–06 in Italian football
2006–07 in Italian football
2006 scandals
Association football controversies
History of football in Italy
Sports scandals in Italy