Italian Football Meltdown
 
Stuart Wilde

July 18, 2006
  

The big meltdown has arrived. Juventus, Italy’s most famous club has been convicted of match fixing, and they have been stripped of their last two championship titles and demoted to the second division, as well as being fined thirty match points. So Juve’, as they are called, ain’t coming back to the big time any time soon. With them into division two went Lazio and Fiorentina, and AC Milan, Berlusconi’s club stayed in the first division but they were fined fifteen points and they lost their place in the Champion’s League, which will cost the club ten million or more.

The Italian just won the World Cup by cheating and playacting and everyone was disgusted by it all, and FIFA the governing body of world football is run by gangsters, so sadly world soccer is in the dumps for now. International rugby introduced video refereeing some years ago, so decisions can be verified but FIFA won’t allow the same for world soccer as that as would mean that the bent referees would be exposed. There are ten of millions at stake for top clubs and big money for the players in fixed matches, and so no one wants fairness to get in the way of a fat paycheck.

Twenty-five Italian referees are on the verge of prison and Buffon the Italian goalkeeper are under investigation for match fixing. Some of the club managers like Juventus’ Luciano Moggi are also on the brink of the slammer. Italy is so bent and so Mafia riddled that no one believes we have seen the end of the scams. Jose Moriniho, the manager of English club, Chelsea, said recently that it would be hard for his club to win the European Champion’s League because of widespread match fixing, as it is not a practice allowed in the English game, so English teams like Chelsea start with a large handicap.

It’s sad the game is so bent, but then ‘bent’ is everywhere nowadays so why should soccer be any different.

© Stuart Wilde 2006
www.stuartwilde.com