Italy not facing new corruption scandal, says player boss

Italian football is not about to be plunged into a damaging repeat of the 2006 corruption scandal despite recent claims from tainted former Juventus supremo Luciano Moggi, it was claimed Thursday.

Sergio Campana, the president of the Italian Footballers’ Federation, insisted there will not be another calciopoli even with Moggi facing a Napoli court case over his alleged involvement in the 2006 affair that resulted in several teams and individuals being punished for match-fixing.

His lawyers have been releasing taped conversations between Inter Milan directors and the Referees’ Association, leading to speculation that there will be a whole new round of investigations and scandals, centred around defending champions Inter.

But Campana said that simply isn’t the case.

“Nothing has yet been reopened, there is no new calciopoli, thank goodness,” he said.

His comments came on the same day that Italian Football Federation president Giancarlo Abete admitted the subject would be discussed during Thursday’s meeting of the organisation.

Lawyers for Moggi, who was hit with a lenghty ban from football for his involvement in calciopoli, have been releasing conversations between former Inter Milan president Giacinto Facchetti and various referees and referees’ officials.

The content of these conversations has been ambiguous, but Moggi’s lawyers continue to promise to release more damning transcripts in the near future.

Juventus, for whom Moggi no longer holds any official role, responded on Wednesday by publishing an open letter on their website in which they asked for universality of treatment.

Juve want to have the two Serie A titles stripped from them in 2005 and 2006, restored.

The 2005 title was not awarded to any side while Inter were named the 2006 champions.

In 2006, Juventus were relegated to Serie B and docked points for their part in the match-fixing scandal while the likes of AC Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina and Reggina all faced point deductions.

Inter, to the surprise of many, were the one big team that was not implicated.

Moggi was one of several former club directors to be banned from the sport for several years.

But although official sources claim no new inquest has been opened, in an interview with Thursday’s Gazzetta dello Sport, former UEFA general secretary Gerd Aigner said Italy has not learnt the lessons of its sordid past.

“Juve and Milan were at the centre of the destabilisation of the Italian League,” he said.

“In Milan’s case it was obvious conflicts of interest. If the club president (Silvio Belusconi) is also the president of the League and the representative for TV rights, well the consequences are inevitable.

“Juve didn’t have certain powers so they found other ways. Until the laws are changed, until there is a neutral and independent structure between TV and politics, nothing will change.

“But with respects to 2006 the conflict of interests has actually grown: the Milan owner (Berlusconi) is also the head of the government.”