Italian Calciopoli match-rigging case adjourned until March

January 20, 2009

ROME (AFP) – A hearing into the infamous Calciopoli match-rigging scandal in Italian football was adjourned on Tuesday until March 24 because many of the accused were not notified about the need for their presence.

The main defendant is former Juventus director-general Luciano Moggi, who has already been found guilty before sporting authorities and banned from all sporting functions for a period of five years.

Neapolitan prosecutors are now trying him and 24 others, among them Paolo Bergamo and Pierluigi Pairetto, the officials charged with picking referees for Serie A matches from 1999-2005, in the civil courts for sporting fraud.

But 18 defendants were not informed personally about the hearing, which lasted little time as it was immediately adjourned.

Among the interested parties in the process are the Italian Football Federation and teams such as AS Roma, Brescia, Bologna, Atalanta, Lecce and the now bankrupt Salernitana.

They are claiming financial losses resulting from the match-fixing perpetrated by Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina — all of whom were punished on the playing field with points deductions and in Juve’s case relegation to Serie B.

Among them Bologna are claiming 10 million euros in compensation from Juve and 32 million euros from Fiorentina.

The Calciopoli scandal broke during 2006 after telephone records were published demonstrating contact between Moggi and the referee selectors amongst other conversations.

Italy went on to win the World Cup during that summer but didn’t save Juve and the others from the sporting authorities and Moggi’s team were stripped of their league titles from 2005 and 2006.

Other than Moggi, brothers Diego and Andrea Della Valle, the owners of Fiorentina, Lazio president Claudio Lotito and former AC Milan director Leonardo Meani all face charges of sporting fraud.

Back in November, Italian reports suggested Moggi was facing six years in prison for his role in the scandal.

But the case is likely to drag on for a long time as Moggi’s lawyers look to exploit legal loopholes to postpone each hearing.

"There were 31,000 telphone calls intercepted but only a few have been transcribed," said Maurilio Prioreschi, one of Moggi’s legal team.

"We don’t know why so we’ll ask for all the other’s to be transcribed.

"We will adduce the incompetence of the court in Naples and asked for the process to be transfered."

Another of Moggi’s team Paolo Trofino said he was concerned that Moggi wouldn’t get a fair trial.

"We hope to have a normal process, Luciano Moggi wants to be a normal citizen who faces the accusations in the court," he said.

"Obviously everyone is worried about the pressure, also mediatic, that is surrounding this case.

"I remember the day of the presidential elections for the Republic, there were four pages in the newspapers for the most important event in the country and eight on Calciopoli."

Written by: AFP

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