Lenny Boyle
Italian Match fixing Scandal
27/05/2012
Italian football is once again rocked by another ugly match-fixing scandal. 19 men have been arrested in the latest episode of corruption in Italian football. Police raided the Italian national team camp on Monday morning searching for defender Domenico Criscito to speak to him as part of a widening investigation.
This latest controversy comes just six years after the famous Calciopoli scandal. In 2006 Juventus were stripped of two league titles and relegated to the second flight of Italian football for conspiring to fix matches.
In a strange reflection of those events Juventus are once again in the spotlight, in the form of their manager Antonio Conte. Conte is under investigation concerning events during his time as manager of Siena, when he guided them to promotion from Serie B.
Of the 19 arrested so far in the scandal 11 are players. The games under scrutiny involve; Napoli, Sampdoria, Brescia, Bari, Lecce, Palermo, Genoa and Lazio.
The Italian press has reported that police believe an Eastern European gang fixed matches for illicit gambling and paid large sums of money to players.
Italian football is still rebuilding after Calciopoli dragged its name through the mud. With the strength of the Bundesliga, La Liga and Premier League; Italian football is in danger of becoming the basket case of Europe. They need to root our corruption once and for all.
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