There’s a scandal going on in the Italian sporting world that makes our Barry Bonds/steroid thing look like an afterschool special about “drugs are bad” or “Jenny eats something.” If this was happening in America, to the NFL… your entire life would’ve changed because of it. ESPN would’ve been in “special report” mode for two straight weeks now, and Bob Ley wouldn’t have been able to leave the air, shower, or shave during that time.
In this SI article, they describe soccer team “Juventus” as the New York Yankees of Italy. And the former own, Luciano Moggi, I suppose would be the Italian Steinbrenner. Anyway, this Moggi character was running an incredible ring of corruption. In fact, I’m fearful that if he reads this post, I’ll wake up with Barbaro’s head in bed next to me.
Anyway, Moggi could evidently decide which refs did which games, which players were selected to the Italian team, and who would and would not be given yellow cards. He had everyone on the take. He’s also accused of “locking up” a referee who didn’t officiate a game the way he was supposed to. Surprise, surprise, Juventus has won the last two titles in Serie A, the top division of Italian soccer.
Imagine if this was the Yankees, and what the coverage of that would be like. Steinbrenner with umps in his pocket, deciding which ones did his games, and kidnapping one of them because they let Jeter get behind in the count. Baseball would never be the same.
An AC Milan player is quoted in the article as saying that he believes the last two seasons should be completely wiped off the books. Really, I don’t know what else they could do. That’s the only reasonable solution… every single thing that’s happened in the last two years is that league is tainted like a Barry Bonds home run hit with Sammy Sosa’s bat at Coors Field with a juiced ball. Asterisks just won’t do here.
Bouj Says:
May 26th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
The most recent precedent to this is French club Marseille match-fixing some French league games to improve their chances against AC Milan in the 1993 Champions’ Cup Final. You know, they don’t have to field a full-strength team in the league, so they can rest everyone for the big match. They got busted, the owner got kicked out of football for life, they had their title taken away, and they were relegated to the second division.
I hope Juve get the hammer dropped on them. Rigging the games is pretty much the worst thing you could do in sports. Worse than drugs, worse than criminals, worse than anything.
Ahereeum Says:
May 26th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
umm…Soccer? European Soccer? I wish I could be interested in this, but I got a WNBA game to watch.
Doger Says:
May 26th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Yeah, but it’s Italian sports. Just like Italian politics, everyone assumes it’s crooked like a bag full of snakes. Shrug, life goes on.
dave Says:
May 26th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
hey jim rome, get off the internet.
mjd, props for the subtle swingers reference.
ski Says:
May 26th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
who would have thought an italian soccer league was corrupt? next you’ll break a story that irish rugby players like to drink…heavily
TenAleTilt Says:
May 27th, 2006 at 3:46 am
“A Barry Bonds home run hit with Sammy Sosa’s bat at Coors Field with a juiced ball” thrown by Ryan Franklin with Angel Hernandez behind the plate.
soccergo9 Says:
May 27th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
The funny thing with the quote from the AC Milan player is that his team is being investigated too. Does that mean that he feels that the last two AC Milan seasons should be wiped from the books also.
Chris Says:
May 29th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Its absolutely ridiculous this guy had this much power over the game.
Soccer Fun Says:
November 20th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Looks like the soccer scandal did not give any positive effect. In fact the case is now cosed as HULIQ reports in an article “Soccer Corruption Probe Is Closed in Italy.” The news article appears at http://www.huliq.com/142/soccer-corruption-probe-closed-in-italy