The funniest part of all is that there are three year bans on the table for Doni, and a host of others, but no one is really talking about lifetime bans like the one Moggi got. Maybe Moggi should have fixed games, then he could have gotten away with it.
There lies the problem. Moggi did not fix any games but everyone thinks he fixed games, therefore .....
im just sick to my stomach reading this. ******** the FIGC, ******** Serie A. i couldnt stomach playing in a league run by these dirty bastards. i wish we were mega rich so we could boycott serie A and not even play in it...
Apparently Agnelli will be in Rome tommorrow with his legal counsil discussing his intentions of Calciopoli.
Serie A is fading away... not only because of lack of money, but mainly due to lack of management... chronic corruption... Pastore has left to France, Eto'o is considering a move to Russia... I mean, the weakening of Inter is very good for us, but not to Italian football in the big picture...
It's all cyclical but we'll always be at an advantage to leagues that operate in languages that are much more worldly than Italian. England, Spain, (and now) France... Even, to a lesser degree, Portugal and Germany. If anything the fact that Italy has been able to compete with Spain and England as long as it has and was actually, markedly, superior to France (and to a lesser degree) Germany for so long is a minor miracle.
Spain is only big because of what Real Madrid and Barcelona do in Champions League. When it comes to league play, La Liga is no different than the Scottish Premier League. France will always be middling: Not quite good enough to overtake the top 4 leagues, but better than Russia or Holland. Germany is getting better by the year. They deserve their position as the third best league in coefficients.
If I was an (unbiased) Arab oil gazillionaire I would be more apt to buy a French team than a similar sized Italian team.
Of course not. Serie A is doing just great, Italian football is flourishing. Stop bullying.. it's not going to work with me.
i think serie A will drop for a little bit but is reinventing itself and will come back and become the no. 2 league england is untouchable unfortunately, but we are slowly switching to attack oriented sides (udinese, napoli, inter, milan) etc, which will be more attractive to the impartial viewer. if we can make some stadiums,watch out for italy! also, italy had declining birth rates for awhile, but it (behind the times) is starting to get a decent amount of immigration. i think this will help the league in the long run. different people, different ideas from different places. serie A has stayed remarkably italian compared to other leagues, but i think that is changing and to compete with the other top leagues we will have to let it change. but it is a good thing because then for example when you have chilean players in your team now ppl in chile want to follow, you get a player say born in italy but decides to represent morocco playing in your league, now morocco pays attention. our growth has stagnated because there wasn't much outside nationalities (obviously some but nothing compared to say EPL) to encourage new fans. the appeal was stuck to italy, western europe to a certain degree, and then the countries with large italian immigrants like brazil , argentina etc. now that we have japanese players in the league, eastern european players, african players, (non argentinean or brazilian) south american players , i think it will only benefit us. we have no excuse not to eventually take back our spot from the bundesliga. everything else equal, i think that the italian teams names have more appeal than germany. also, the language of italy is similar to spanish , portuguese, french than german. so we should have more appeal to south america etc my 2 cents
Money is the main factor. Germany has the strongest economy in Europe while Italy will be like Greece soon. Just look at the debt some of these EU countries are in.
Back on track, Cristiano Doni was working with Beppe Signori to fix Atalanta matches in Serie B solely for gambling purposes. It takes more than one guy to fix a match, so the team as a whole is just as guilty. Atalanta's penalty for fixing matches for gambling purposes? 6 points. There were SEVENTEEN teams who were caught fixing matches or who took part in fixed matches solely for the purpose of gambling. Only one team was relegated: US Alessandria Calcio 1912. They were a C1 team last year. No one knows where they'll play this year though, but they can appeal the decision. I know the FIGC is corrupt, and that 2006 was a complete sham, but the fixing of matches for gambling purposes defeats the whole point of sport. What's the point in watching it if the outcome has been previously decided? It makes it no better than pro wrestling. Clubs who fix matches for the purpose of gambling don't deserve to play in the top flight. They deserve to start from way down at the bottom of the pyramid. They're ruining football all over the world. They did it in several Asian countries. Asian leagues used to be popular amongst their own people, but things got so corrupt over there that people started clamoring for leagues that they believed weren't fixed. It's why the EPL is huge over in Asia. It's got nothing to do with the quality of it. People want to watch something that they believe is real. Serie A and La Liga are starting to realize this, so they're trying to market their matches over there, but if you've got teams who are fixing matches for gambling purposes, and you're not punishing them in the harshest way possible, not just to set an example to other teams not to do it, but to punish those who committed the crimes, your league is no better than the Singaporean League or Chinese League which are completely controlled, run, and fixed by illegal gambling syndicates. I'm sorry to go off on a rant like this, but this cannot happen in a league that I love. It's going to destroy our league if this continues, and having a low coefficient will be the last thing on our minds.
One positive thing is that average clubs like Udinese, Palermo, Genoa, Sampdoria (such a shame they were relegated) and big clubs like Lazio, Napoli improved a lot during the last years. This is very important. But let's be honest, Italian football was OK until 2006, despite of players already getting old and not being replaced. What they did to Juve ********ed everything up and Italian football couldn't recover. When Juve becomes a force in Europe again, then Italian football can think about reborning as well.
I don't gamble but I have a few friends who do it professional. All I'll say is that these guys are heavy on Serie B and Middle Eastern leagues. Say if you do your research properly you can find the in. Pretty sad Italy is linked with really small leagues for gambling
Serie B is a small league. I've gambled my entire life and, other than myself and my youngest brother, every man on my dad's side of the family has been a bookie ever since they jumped off the ship as it approached Philadelphia. The smaller leagues (and this goes for everything, even Big Sky and Missouri Valley Conference college football, for example) are notoriously easy, especially *right after* the line comes out. Oddsmakers just can't follow every team of every sport close enough.
Serie B is also incredibly easy to fix. You've got guys in that league who haven't been paid in weeks, so when a fixer comes by and offers you €5,000 to fix a match, you'll take it. Most of those teams in Serie B lose money hand over fist because it's just too damn expensive to run a second division side. By the way, I highly recommend reading "The Fix" by Declan Hill. It's both disturbing and very good.
Juventus president Andrea Agnelli ready to head to Court of Arbitration for Sport over 2006 Calciopoli Scudetto Club president has made clear they will continue their fight for the revoked championship as they prepare a legal case for the CAS to consider. Juventus president Andrea Agnelli is set to take the club's case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in an attempt to get the 2006 Scudetto reinstated. Last month the Italian FA (FIGC) ruled there were no legal grounds to revoke the hotly-debated Scudetto from Inter and hand it back to Juventus who were stripped of the title in 2006 following the Calciopoli scandal. Juventus' appeal was based on the Calciopoli 2 proceedings at the Tribunal of Naples and they tried to show from evidence that has emerged in court that Inter were also involved in Calciopoli, having contacts with referees and designators at the time of the scandal. Despite the FIGC's decision, Agnelli will not concede defeat, and maintains his club have every right to fight through all the legal avenues. "The system which punished Juventus was incompetent. We have been speaking with our legal team and we will be ready to present our case to the CAS so we can get those titles reassigned," Agnelli told the press. "We will adopt the following measures by going to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), the Attorney General at the Court of Auditors, the Rome prefect office, CONI Delegate of management Control and the Uefa Executive Committee. "We won the Scudetto on the pitch in 2006 with 91 points and then another club [Inter] saw it handed to them on a table." Meanwhile, Juventus resume their pre-season action when they meet Real Betis on Saturday. http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/ital...dent-andrea-agnelli-ready-to-head-to-court-of
Della Valle pleads to Inter Scum "I ask for constructive spirit from Moratti to come out in public and sit around a table with me and try to explain to the many who want to know what really happened back then. "Because the two clubs as friends have shared the same principles and the same values, but we have had different treatments and different fates. "It is not only for me, but it is definitely important to know what you, Mr. Moratti, think was the reason that what we had to suffer unjustly." "All this would serve to bring some calm to supporters and especially to give confidence to people, showing that the true values still exist and that no ambiguity or hypocrisy can change them."
