a little read on calciopoli...
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Calciopoli: Italy's greatest moral hour, or Inter's greatest revenge ?
Saturday 4th October 2011 | By Arber Sulejmani
(This article was originally published here. The author is the brilliant Arber Sulejmani who you can follow on Twitter or check out his fantastic blog )
“Allora, sono qui per informarvi – intanto vi chiedero una cortesia di non farmi domande perche non ho ne la voglia ne la forza … Mi maca l’anima. Mi e’ stata uccisa. Da domani saro’ dimissionario da direttore generale della Juventus. E da stasera il mondo del calcio non e piu il mio mondo. Pensero solo a difendermi da tante cattiverie che sono state dette e fatte… Questo volevo dirvi. Non ho domande… non posso rispondere a domande anche perche vi ripeto, non ho la voglia… “
English Translation:
“I don’t have either the strength nor the willingness to answer any question. I miss my soul, it has been killed. Tomorrow I’ll be resigning, since tonight the football world isn’t my world anymore. I’ll think only to defend myself from all allegations and wicked actions.”
Luciano Moggi – his last interview as a General Director of Juventus
I, as a die hard Juventino may seem very uninteresting and dull but the article you are about to read is all about facts and no prejudices what so ever.
As a matter of fact, Juventus has taught me a lot of stuff, most importantly to not hate. I was raised watching Juventus succeed and Champions have no reason to hate.
Hence Arbër does not envy Inter, least I could do is expressing the hate so publicly which often if not always results as a failure in an article.
Indeed, we have to be realistic. Dont look at things the way we want them to be. It is just nonsense to think of Inter as the savior of Italian Football for discovering Calciopoli and that they themselves are completely innocent. This of course brings up a very debatable discussion between rival fans and that will probably never end but of course FC Internazionale and Massimo Moratti are both aware of what is happening to Calcio and I personally think they are totally responsible for everything.
When considering Calciopoli, one is actually forced to believe that FC Internazionale and Massimo Moratti are the main conductors of the scandal. Unfortunately Juventus are meant to bare the blame whilst Inter on the other side escaping as “innocent winners”.
Needless to say, AC Milan, another giant club of Calcio and a tough rival of Moratti’s Inter, were also harshly convicted. You want to tell me this is just a coincidence?
In 2006 the Calciopoli scandal was firstly ignited from the pages of a famous football newspaper in Italy called “Gazzetta dello Sport”, a newspaper with Carlo Buora on the board, a very important figure in the TIM (Telecom Italia) board of directors and a managing director in the company of Pirelli. This suspicious newspaper actually printed the transcripts of the conversations of Luciano Moggi and other rival clubs like Fiorentina, Lazio and Milan. This did not result in anything and they were not taken into consideration. Moratti hoped for media tittle-tattle and an attack to Juventus that would probably cause them a lot of harms.
The transcripts were however send to trials in Rome but there was no evidence of a possible scandal and it was concluded that no illegal action existed. Frustration increased and Moratti hoped for another media gossip so that rival clubs could be found guilty.
Andrea Galliani, the then president of FIGC was forced to step down due to speculations and a suspicious guy named Guido Rossi took over the role. He was rather quick in decisions, and as a known Inter fan he punished Juve with a relegation to Serie B. Suspicions do not end here because his next decision was stepping down from FIGC and as already a shareholder in Inter; he took over TIM (Telecom Italia), the company that wiretapped Moggi’s phone calls.
Massimo Moratti, the owner of Inter also appears to be in the board of TIM which increases uncertainties even more. Another gentleman named Tronchetti Provera, the owner of Pirelli actually owns TIM. So again, you want to tell me this is a coincidence?
Sure Juventus have a bone to pick with Inter. All that damage caused to a superpower of European football, it is unlikely that Juventus will even acknowledge the existence of Inter anymore.
How could someone question the accomplishment of such a starting eleven made of at least 6 national team captains? Well, only Inter had a very long time without a trophy, much more a frustration to Moratti that made him spent millions of money, hundreds of transfers and a total of 16 years without a Scudetto. The only trophy Moratti enjoyed was the UEFA Cup in 1999. Surely, with such a success only Moratti could envy the triumph of Turin rivals.
As noted above, considering Calciopoli it is not hard to arrive to a definite statement that Inter themselves fabricated the whole scandal.
Based on the association of FIGC, Gazzetta dello Sport, Telecom Italia (TIM) and Inter, one is enforced to believe that Inter are the main initiators of Calciopoli. Furthermore, given the fact that Inter and Moratti were the only ones to gain from the scandal, the whole farce is now often referred to as “Morattopoli” by rival fans. But one thing was for sure, Inter could finally enjoy success.
Gazzetta dello Sport hid all elements in order to favor Inter and people have to know that Inter’s management and all manager’s from all Italians clubs where phoning with the referee designators, that was in fact allowed in 2006.
Remember This?
So, what was Juve and Milan really accused of? In a nutshell we know it as accused of “having an exclusive relationship with the referee designators” [Pairetto and Bergamo], which was believed to have given both teams some kind of advantage. Sure, if that is considered as unsportsmanlike conduct, a punishment is most probably likely to happen. And as the punishment was never meant to exceed ‘a fine’, it interestingly reached title stripping and point deductions. Obviously, the powerful Guido Rossi appears again, and he decided to make the “contacting a referee designator” a violation, which was actually never in the rules before that. He managed to make “the unexplained” with the calls and grouped the ones that would serve enough to accuse both clubs of match fixing. Embarrassing.
As one would object, there were 171.000 phone calls that disappeared out of nowhere when those were mostly needed for both Juventus and Milan. Basically the calls that were taken into consideration were meant to damage Juve and Milan and the rest of the teams punished. What about the rest of the phone calls? Obviously whith those still present, the whole case scenario would have been different and the punishments would have been pretty fair.
You want to tell me these phone calls could not have helped the situation better? How about giving a real clear picture to Italian Football, if not Juventus and Milan? Well, some of those phone calls fortunately came out and the Inter presidents were overheard speaking to referee designators.
Facts coming from Italy essentially demonstrate that the Calciopoli scandal was mainly built by the media, directly pointed at Luciano Moggi. It is already well popular the fact that investigators hid many conversations to accuse only Luciano Moggi, and show the world that it was him (the best transfer guru the world ever saw at that time) at the head of the conspiracy. How unbelievable.
My approach is to involve the Italian media such as Gazzetta dello Sport, Rai and Sky that have done hardly disinformation. Unfortunately outside of Italy, Gazzetta dello Sport is the reference and the orientation, whilst I think all that had to be denounced.
People probably don’t know that in the famous 170.000 phone conversations, we never heard a conversation between Moggi and a certain referee that was in activity as an official. These things however, appear indisputable with Giacinto Faccheti the then Inter president who passed away in 2006. And that was not allowed!
Additionally, Leandro Meani, who is supposed to have spoken to a number of referees and designators at the time of Calciopoli four years ago, admitted to having had contact with various figures, but he also questioned why Inter were never probed after calls involving individuals from the club emerged at the current trial.
The answer is easy and Inter took benefit from other teams deterioration. The reason they are now winning is because their biggest rivals weakened by Calciopoli. Appalling! Yes Calciopoli did help Inter, it turned them into a winning team by getting half of Juve’s best players and making them a winning mentality, regrettably it just hasn`t or won’t be proven.
People don’t know that referee Danilo Nucini maintained direct relations with Inter, while he was active, or simply Gazzetta dello Sport has never said it!
Nevertheless, I also find it ironic the decision of Italy’s Rai television that last year concluded they will stop showing replays of controversial refereeing decisions this season in a bid to increase debate about tactical issues. Paolo Galimberti the Rai president also said that “they are now thinking about a football of less shouting and more thought”. Oh finally, after all that damage caused to Juve and Milan now the company wants to avoid the heated, if entertaining, arguments which often erupt between specialists on weekend highlights show when referee calls are questioned.
Hence, the Italian referees’ association welcomed the move but its members will only receive partial relief given Italy’s Sky and Mediaset show much more soccer than Rai and neither has plans to drop controversial replays.
To my mind, I can only judge in the aspect of giving Juve, Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio more credit to clear the dirty scapegoat that Inter has imposed to these teams, mainly Juve. It is impossible to think of a different situation when all of these connections between Inter, Pirelli, TIM and Gazzetta dello Sport are so obvious, with the main intention to bring home success by destroying rival clubs like Juventus and Milan. What hurts the most is that Calciopoli is still being investigated despite Inter emerging to be innocent.
For all I know, Inter have actually enjoyed the time of Juventus’ decline and even Milan’s poor form since the Calciopoli scandal occurred. Inter gained 4 consecutive Scudettis, considering the 2005-2006 Scudetto that Juventus had it revoked from them to be awarded to Inter some days later. And yes, they proudly consider that Scudetto to be worthy of.
That kind of a Scudetto is a mixed blessing. It gets you a lot of attention, but people are less likely to consider you seriously.
As regards to this, according to the Italian law the revoked Scudetto was illegal and Juventus are again involved in such a scandal that they continuously require their Scudetto back.
In fact, months ago it was discovered that Massimo Moratti was also involved in such conversations to those of Luciano Moggi back in the years. Moratti’s position in the scandal is questioned and such a discussion may worsen the situation further. This brings up the Calciopoli II, which has already begun and Calcio lovers are waiting for the closing stages as soon as possible, despite who the winner or the loser might be.
One could also ask why those clubs punished did not appeal against. Luciano Moggi has asked the same after the scandal in a lot of interviews and TV shows he took place. However, I highly doubt Lucky Luciano does not know the reason, but that at least shows how uncertain the situation was back then.
In fact, Juventus were mostly damaged and it was up to them to take such a move and as far as I am concerned, Juventus did not appeal because Italy’s world cup presence would have been in a big danger. If such a complication in the scandal appeared, the whole Italian football competition was threatened and/or actually France would have been the winner of 2006 World Cup.
Christian Vieri, a legend for the club of Inter also hit the limelight years ago claiming to know something about Calciopoli. Former Inter striker has suggested the Calciopoli scandal was sparked and created by Nerazzurri president Massimo Moratti in order to make his club the strongest team in Italy and send Juventus down to Serie B.
In this connection, Vieri is currently suing Inter and Telecom Italia for the illegal wire tapping. He also claimed that “he was wiretapped because he always told the truth and that president Moratti did not trust him much”. Christian Vieri confessed that Inter players were made to sign a document to cover up any existence of the plan to take down other clubs. Therefore, he was tapped to ensure that he never spoke of Calciopoli plans to other people.
“I am ready to show everyone the document, everyone knew what was happening. I was spied upon because I cannot keep these things locked up,” Vieri said as reported by Firenze Viola.
“Seventy per cent of the contract was to be paid by Inter, and the other 30 per cent by Telecom who used me for advertising campaigns so that they could pay less taxes.
“I have only ever spoken about this to Mr [Rinaldo] Ghelfi of Inter, agreeing everything with him.
“I felt really sorry for Juventus because I have affection for them. The same with Milan. I thought I was doing something good for my president who has plenty to sell in terms of having a double personality.”
The many conspiracy assumptions are keeping the scandal alive, and as we are now witnessing Calciopoli II, the scandal takes a different view. The scandal is just a conspiracy involving Moratti, Guido Rossi, Carlo Buora and Tronchetti, all of whom are well known Inter loyalists and shareholders.
Last but not least, in Calciopoli II we have also witnessed another case scenario where Luciano Moggi had used Swiss sim cards for making phone calls. This however brings us to another level of ambiguity.
How could have TIM wiretapped the conversations of Moggi using the Swiss sim cards? That would be illegal and according to Luciano Moggi that is a crime that he is currently trying to sue TIM for.
The Calciopoli scandal shook the Italian game to its core in the summer of 2006, leading to the relegation of Juventus to Serie B. The Bianconeri, who were then the dominant side in Italy, had two Scudetti revoked from 2005 and 2006, the latter of which was assigned to Inter. Heavy points penalties were also dished out to the likes of Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina.
Since Calciopoli, the Nerazzurri have dominated Serie A with four consecutive Scudetti, having previously waited since 1989 to win the Campionato. Meanwhile they are fortunately out of the title race this season already as Milan crashed them in San Siro weeks ago with a 3-0 result.
Ever since, we have seen the decline of Serie A and it’s no coincidence that Bundes Liga is now ahead of us. Star players are all attracted to La Liga or Premier Leauge rather than Serie A. Attendance is decreasing and with such humiliation to Calcio, Moratti still considers himself a ‘hero’ of the whole conspiracy. Nicely done Mr. Massimo Moratti.
So what makes one still think Inter are innocent? After all that’s said and done, Moratti needs to build a new way out of Calciopoli since facts don’t lie and they claim Moratti is the main man of the scandal.
Those Scudetti’s were sweat out on the pitch and neither Moratti nor any other made-up scandal can revoke them from the Juventus tifosi. We believe in karma, and looking at the current season of Inter, we are implied to believe that despite being humiliated from the underdogs of Champions League – Schalke 04 [Schalke 07 – as the Bianconeri’s call it now], they are yet to finish a season “trophyless”.
