Post by Salem6 on Sept 14, 2006 9:21:23 GMT
Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Monday September 11, 2006
Milan- Former Juventus manager Luciano Moggi, the alleged ringmaster in a vast match-fixing scandal, has added new fuel to the affair that shook Italian football through a controversial appearance at a television show. Italian media Monday criticised the satirical show "Quelli che il calcio," (loosely translatable as "Those who know football") which is broadcast by the public channel RAI 2 during the Sunday afternoon games, for allowing Moggi to give a one-sided and uncontradicted view of the matter.
The Italian football federation (FIGC) found Moggi, 69, guilty of sports unloyalty in a trial largely based on his tapped telephone calls with a number of Serie A referees and their selectors, who were also found guilty.
He was sentenced to a five-year ban from any sports job. The ban could be extended to life in a third and final arbitration to be held later this month. He remains under investigation by public prosecutors for unfair conduct on the players' transfer market, sports fraud and illicit bookkeeping.
Moggi said that he did nothing wrong and that what happened to him "stems from tapped calls that should have been done for all football managers, not just me."
He added that selectors received calls from all clubs and that he only asked that Juve games be officiated by the best referees.
"Before I arrived at Juve, they had won nothing for nine years," he said. "Now they are not going to win again because there is a cartel (controlling football) which is not the one they talked about in the trial."
Juve, who won six Serie A titles in the past 10 years, had their last two cancelled in the trial and were relegated to the Serie B with a 17-point penalty.
When the only journalist present in the studio noted that sports judges gave a different version of the events than his, and recalled how Moggi locked a referee in the changing room of a stadium, the former manager reacted angrily saying: "I'm through with you. I'm not talking to you any more."
Criticism of the show came from Sandro Curzi, a board member of RAI. "What happened (during the show) is incredible," he said. "The lack of serious journalistic skills and of ability to contradict was embarrassing."
La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that sports minister Giovanna Melandri criticised Clemente Mastella, the justice minister who took part in the show as "a good friend of Moggi" and called the relegation of Juve "unfair."
"It is preferable that Mastella does not comment on legal proceedings that are still ongoing," Melandri said.
© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur
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