Friday, May 12, 2006

Not again...

For seasoned Italian football watchers the latest scandal to rock the game can provoke only one reaction - NOT AGAIN!

It hardly seems that a season can go by without some match-rigging, sporting-fraud, dodgy-dealing claim. With the case of the 'intercepted phone-calls' by Juve top dog Luciano Moggi it looks like some famous names are going to be dragged through the mire once more.

Some big name players have been mentioned as gambling on games. Juventus are the biggest club implicated but Lazio and Fiorentina along with a number of others have been mentioned. There are even suggestions that 29 out of the 38 weeks of last season's campaign were 'falsified' in some way.

My greatest feeling is one of sadness. Particularly on the eve of a World Cup. All this can only destabilise Italy's bid to win in Germany with so many players and teams involved. It should be stressed, at the moment, that all of these charges are no more than accusations. They may, or may not, turn out to be true. But the damage to the reputation of Serie A and Italian football has already been done.

The actual content of the phone calls - from what I have heard of it - was not really that shocking. It appeared to confirm what many of us knew already - that Moggi is an expert in using every means possible to help his team. Maybe it is the regulations that need changed, rather than any great clear-out from the game. On the other hand, Italy being Italy, it looks like more blood-letting is in store and who knows where the casualties might be? If only this could be the last scandal in Calcio but I doubt that will be the case.

4 comments:

martinobhoy said...

The authorities can do whatever they need to do as long as the standings in Yahoo's fantasy calcio Lega Scozia remain unaffected.

All Trez's goals were legit!

a.c.t. said...

Would it be surprising if it was 29 out of 38 games falsified? I'd love to be able to say yes but, alas it's the same story every season. It is very sad indeed and especially for us who continue to support Italian football and often defend it (as I often do). I just don't don't know what to say anymore - it's been going on for so long and from what I can tell, noone can be arsed to do anything about it.

Spangly Princess said...

amons the many depressing features of this (set of) scandal(s) is the total unsurprisingness of it all.

on the other hand I'm impressed at the apaprent energy of the police and carabinieri in pursuing these investigations, since that suggests at least the will to tackle some of these problems.

here's the best-case scenario: all the implicated clubs go down, Inter campioni & Roma second, automatic champions league place... ;-)

ginkers said...

I really don't know what I want the outcome to be. Whoever tried to fix matches should be punished but I hate sporting matters being decided by the law courts.

Inter have been chasing the title for years so what a feeble way this would be to get it. I would prefer them to do like they did with Torino back in the 1920s and award it to Juve in the books but simply revoke it so they stay stuck on 28 (or possibly 27 if they take away last year's too).

When will we ever learn?