Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Italian professional football should be halted for two or three years to get over the match-fixing scandal which has spattered its image,Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Tuesday.
The scandal has seen a number of top players arrested,the coach of this years championship club placed under investigation and the national team training headquarters raided by police.
Its particularly sad when a world which should be an expression of the highest values sport,youth,competition,fairness turns out to be a mass of foul play,falsehood and demagoguery, he said at a news conference.
This isnt a government proposal,but I wonder if it wouldnt be a good idea to suspend the game for two or three years.
Montis comments were immediately denounced as rubbish by the head of one Serie A club. Before saying we need to stop playing football he should think about his own problems and everything he is destroying and closing down with his laws, said Maurizio Zamparini,president of Palermo. Monti is showing his ignorance because professional football clubs pay 800 million euros ($1 billion) to the state every year.
In the latest phase of an operation which began last year,police placed Antonio Conte,coach of championship-winning Juventus,under investigation on Monday over allegations relating to a 2011 match between his previous club Siena and Novara. They also arrested Stefano Mauri,captain of Lazio,one of the two big clubs in Rome,and raided the Italian national teams training base at Coverciano after placing Italy defender Domenico Criscito under investigation.
Prosecutors believe an international gambling ring paid players to throw matches. Dozens of current and former players in teams ranging from the Serie A top division down to the lower leagues may have been involved.
