I’m not a soccer fan. But if you are, the World Cup begins in just a couple of weeks. One of the favorites (based on what I’ve read) is Italy. But a scandal is clouding the picture.
International football (soccer, for us Americans) president Sepp Blatter was quoted in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera as saying, “This is madness. How is it possible that Italian soccer has stooped so low? This is the greatest scandal in the history of soccer.”
So what happened? Allegations include rigging matches through corrupt referees, kidnapping a referee and two linesmen, wiretaps that show some of the alleged offenses, betting by players, embezzlement (through using public funds to chauffeur some of the ringleaders), and, of course, tax evasion. Another Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, said that Italian officials were investigating whether millions of Euros have been stashed at the Vatican Bank. The transcript of allegations runs over 1,000 pages.
Agenzia Giornalistica Italia reports that player transfers have led to tax fraud based on omissions of at least 70 million Euros. Three publicly traded soccer teams have seen their shares fall by 50% since the scandal broke.
For Italian soccer fans, this scandal, code named “Off Side” and dubbed by the Italian media “Operation Clean Feet,” is the equivalent of the Black Sox scandal of 1919. It will be interesting to see the impact on the Italian World Cup team, and what charges (if any) are actually filed.
Links: AGI Story, The Australian (much more readable than AGI)