AC Milan official under the spotlight
ROME (AFP) - An AC Milan official has for the first time become directly involved in a match-fixing affair in a new twist to the Italian football scandal which has been raging the past few weeks.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday published transcripts of telephone conversations of Leonardo Meani, the only AC Milan official facing match-fixing charges by Naples prosecutors in the 2004/05 Italian championship won by Juventus.
In a taped conversation dating back to April 19 last year, Meani expressed anger at an Italian football federation official responsible for designating linesman Gennaro Mazzei for Milan's 2-1 defeat against Siena when Milan had a goal disallowed.
"Now pay attention (...) Send us Consolo, not just to Turin. Do you understand?" Meani was quoted as saying about Andrea Consolo, a linesman who has already appeared in telephone conversations as one of the officials most wanted by Juventus director general Luciano Moggi.
According to the Corriere della Sera transcription, Mazzei, also facing charges by Naples prosecutors, appears to give way under pressure from the Milan official.
This new revelation in the Italian press comes at a time of rising concern over the publication of entire pages of telephone conversations in theory protected by secrecy laws.
Later Thursday, AC Milan's lawyer hit back at the allegations.
"I have said and I repeat that Milan is a total stranger to this affair," said Leandro Cantamessa.
AC Milan are one of four teams, with Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio, being investigated by Naples prosecutors on charges of sporting fraud with 41 people placed under judicial investigation, including nine referees and 11 linesmen.
However the role each club played in the affair has not yet been worked out and only one AC Milan official is facing charges.
AC Milan owner and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has on several occasions called for the last two Italian league titles, won by Juventus, to be handed to AC Milan.
Moggi was sacked last week amid the burgeoning Italian football scandal, a complex affair which has many strands and separate investigations.
Moggi is in the spotlight after Italian papers published transcripts of phone calls intercepted in 2004 between him and Pierluigi Pairetto, head of the Italian referees' association and a member of UEFA's referees' commission.
In the conversations, Moggi tells Pairetto which referees he wants assigned to certain Juventus matches in Serie A and the Champions League.
Meanwhile, the offices of AC Milan and city rivals Inter were raided by Italy's financial police on Thursday as part of a probe into financial irregularities involving Juventus transfers.
Documents on the buying and selling of players were seized in the operations, the ANSA news agency reported.
The Turin prosecuter had ordered the seizure of papers involved in the transfers of 41 players at Juventus.
UEFA to contact Italian football commissar over scandal
GLENEAGLES, (AFP) - European football's governing body UEFA want to meet with Guido Rossi the newly-installed emergency administrator of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) their director-general said on Monday.
Lars-Christer Olsson, who is attending the UEFA executive committee meeting here, said that it was important to meet as soon as possible with Rossi to see how his investigation into the scandal surrounding several of Italy's top clubs was developing.
"We have to get in touch with Rossi because there are several important decisions to take soon," said Olsson.
"For instance the confirmation of which Italian clubs will compete in Europe next season (July 27) and the delivery of the dossiers (May 31) for the candidates wishing to bid to win the right to host Euro 2012 (Italy are competing against two joint bids of Croatia and Hungary and Poland and Ukraine)."
Rossi's task is to oversee the FIGC investigation and repair Italian football's tarnished image.
Three of the clubs implicated in the scandal Juventus, AC Milan and Fiorentina have all qualified for next season's Champions League, but if they are found guilty of sporting fraud they could have points deducted, or worse still be demoted.
That means Rossi has a little more than five weeks to resolve the crisis.
The scandal first flared up when transcripts of phone calls were published in the Italian press.
Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi is at the centre of the scandal over phone calls intercepted in 2004 between him and Pierluigi Pairetto, head of the Italian referees' association and a member of UEFA's referees' commission.
In the conversations, Moggi tells Pairetto which referees he wants assigned to certain Juventus matches in Serie A and the Champions League.
The scandal sparked the entire Juventus board of directors' mass resignation and of the FIGC president Francesco Carraro before Rossi was appointed to take control of the FIGC.
Italian national team coach Marcelo Lippi is also implicated in the affair after featuring in several intercepted telephone calls in which he talks to Moggi about the national team.
Moggi is suspected of putting pressure on Lippi to leave certain Juventus players out of the team so that they weren't too tired for their club matches.
In another twist prosecutors started investigating the dealings of GEA, the largest company of football agents in Italy, who are run by Moggi's son Alessandro, and who count Lippi's son Davide as one of their employees.
GEA are said to have 41 Serie A players, three Serie A presidents and several high-profile coaches on their books - although Lippi denies he is one of them.
But Moggi, who claims he is being put up as a scapegoat by higher powers, remained defiant despite the evidence against him and seemed to take on an 'if I go down, they are all coming with me' approach in his interview on Monday with the Quotidiano Nazionale internet site .
"It wasn't me who invented this football, the system has always been like this.
"It wasn't me who created this world of football which exists with its ruthless logic. The real power is economic, with those who manage television rights.
"If the magistrates tried to listen in to their telephone conversations, some very interesting things would come out."
Moggi also offered up the following excuse for his conversations about referees.
"Like my other colleagues, I simply wanted to ensure that we did not have enemies of Juventus on the field. I just wanted to have good, impartial, serious professionals," he said.
Moggi claimed that Carraro was aware of all these practices in Italian football.
On May 18, police officers searched Juventus's offices and Moggi's house - he is also suspected of false accounting and tax evasion.
Italian football scandal - the investigations
ROME, (AFP) - These are the four main criminal investigations in the Italian football scandal:
NAPLES
Opened after magistrates studied transcripts of intercepted telephone conversations recorded during the 2004-05 season involving Serie A directors, high-ranked Italian football federation (FIGC) officials and referees.
Four Serie A clubs - Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio are accused of match-fixing.
The central figure in the investigation is Luciano Moggi, who quit as general director of Juventus last Sunday.
In these conversations, Moggi, regarded as one of the most powerful men in Italian football, tells Pierluigi Pairetto, the head of the Italian referees association, which referees he wants for Juventus matches.
Moggi is also suspected of putting pressure on referees to give yellow and red cards to players who might be a threat to Juventus in upcoming matches.
That way there was a chance they would be suspended for when they played the Juventus, thus improving the Turin club's chances of winning.
Also implicated are Franco Carraro and Innocenzo Mazzini, who both resigned from the FIGC last week.
Carraro was president and Mazzini vice-president.
Magistrates are questioning 41 people after identifying 19 matches which they believe to be suspicious.
ROME
This investigation concerns the dealings of GEA, the largest company of football agents in Italy with over 220 professional footballers and coaches on their books.
GEA is run by Moggi's son Alessandro.
Luciano and Alessandro Moggi are suspected of unfair competition with the use of threats of violence.
The growing number of players on their books has raised suspicions that Moggi Senior put pressure on GEA clients to under-perform against Juventus.
TURIN
Turin magistrates are looking into the transfer dealings of Juventus.
Moggi and another former Juventus director, Antonio Giraudo, are suspected of falsifying accounts and tax evasion.
On Thursday, the offices of Juventus and Moggi's house were searched by Italy's financial police under the authorisation of Turin prosecutors.
PARMA
Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and three former players - Antonio Chimenti, Mark Iuliano and Enzo Maresca, are under investigation for alleged illegal gambling on Serie A matches.
NOTE: In addition to these criminal investigations, the FIGC are conducting their own investigation which is likely to result in swifter disciplinary action on those found guilty.
Criminal investigations in Italy can be protracted affairs lasting years in some cases.
