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| [photo by René C. Nielsen] |
- by Adam Huntington, writing from Dundee, Scotland
Approximately forty people have been named in the scandal, a large number of which face claims of conditioning up to seventeen matches in Italy's lower leagues; Seria B and Lega Pro. Cremonese, a small team from Cremona in the north of Italy, look like they were the catalyst for the initial investigation after a series of bizarre events unfolded there, specifically surrounding goalkeeper Marco Paoloni. Finding himself with quite a bit of debt, some of which came from gambling, Paolo started to bet against his own team. Being the keeper, he was in an ideal position to throw games and thus win some money off his intentionally poor performances. Unfortunately for him, Cremonese were actually a pretty good team, and other teams sometimes only produced a couple of shots in the entire game. Fearing that his performance alone wouldn't be enough to make his team lose, Paoloni visited his orthodontist, who gave him a prescribed drug - a known hallucinogenic - used to cure strong cases of insomnia. He then used it to spike his own teammate's water. Two players took ill during the game, and defender Carlo Gervasoni had a seizure whilst driving home, crashing his car and ending up in hospital. Worse still for Paoloni his team still managed to win 2-0, thus inevitably increasing his debt. This turned him into both something of a professional match fixer, and the central figure in Scommesspoli.
Also among the accused stands Atalanta captain, Cristiano Doni, who was allegedly involved in phone calls relating to the scandal, these claims, however, have still not been verified. Claims and counter claims ensued, with Doni claiming he has been made to be a scapegoat, and that his performances were all legitimate. Of the five Serie B games under scrutiny, Atalanta are involved in three; two of which ended in a draw and one comprehensive 3-0 win. In the draw with Ascoli, both teams seemed to stop trying once Atlanta scored the equaliser in the 61st minute, very few chances were created after that goal. In their win over Pacienza, they were gifted two very soft penalties, which Doni converted. Their opponents could also be accused of very poor attacking play, shooting from very difficult angles and overhitting a large number of crosses.
As of yet though, nothing has been proved. History looks like it's conspiring against the accused, but those results mentioned could have all been legitimate. Until someone admits to the scandal - Doni is adamant he's innocent - these games, or their highlights, are very interesting to watch. Once someone has cried foul play, you suddenly become much more critical in your assessment of the game. Wayward shooting becomes something other than lamentable; it's a chance to give the opposition the ball back. An ill-timed tackle resulting in a free kick is no longer a mistake, it's a present. Every move can be scrutinised and called up as evidence, from throw-ins to goal kicks, but in reality, fixing a football match is a very difficult thing to do.
There's a lot of reasons why failure could occur when attempting to condition a match; involved players getting a sudden attack of conscious, uninvolved players performing above themselves, the intimidating atmosphere of the crowd, even unintentional goals. Due to the sheer number of scandals in Italian football, the press and have become very adept at spotting the tell-tale signs of one. So much so that some managers have taken to covering their mouths with their hands when directing orders to players to prevent being lip-read. Way back in 2001, there was a case involving Torino defender Fabio Gelante, who was caught on camera telling a fellow defender to; "let them score". Then from a corner, no more than fifteen seconds later, the defender seemed to stop playing and the player he was supposed to be marking duly scored. Gelante denies any wrong doing, claiming he was telling his partner; "Don't let them score". A bit of a hurried repost maybe, but Gelante's case just shows that very little slips past the camera lens.
As mentioned before, it's incredibly hard to get the comprehensive story behind the entire scandal. These games in question were all played at the end of the season, a time where a lot of Italian teams tend stop trying. There have been many cases when big teams - with nothing left to play for - have played relegation threatened teams, and the latter have won. This is purely because in Italy, wasted effort is more embarrassing than defeat, why try hard if there's nothing in it for you? There's no shortage of examples of this, and their history is riddled with scandal, but these type of end of season games go unpunished.
As large as Scommesspoli may seem, 2006's Calciopoli was the biggest match-fixing scandal in recent times, if not history. Juventus were stripped of two championships, fined the equivalent of £31 million ($49 million), and relegated to Serie B. Lazio and Fiorentina were kicked out of their European competitions, a bullet that AC Milan somehow managed to dodge. Milan then, unbelievably, went on to win the Champions League in the next season, beating Liverpool in the final. Calciopoli cast Italian football deep into the doldrums of scandal again and the shockwaves rocked the rest of Europe and the World. Whilst it's unlikely that the latest besmirching of Italian football will be as serious as it's predecessor, it will nonetheless cast a disappointingly familiar shadow over the nation.
sources: "Calcio" by John Foot, "The Game" podcast by Gabriele Marcotti.
