footballspectator

The Neapolitan prosecutor who first uncovered the involvement of Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and Milan in match-fixing has announced that two more as yet unnamed clubs are also being investigated. Unlike last time however, he is refusing to name the clubs before retired magistrate Franceso Saverio Borelli (who is leading the investigation) files charges. This is likely to be very shortly as a result of UEFA pressure.

This new revelation comes a few days after Luciano Moggi’s statement to the Italian media that Inter were also involved in match-fixing. At first, his comments were seen as an attempt  to “cleanse” his image, now they may be seen as prophetic…

We have heard people say, “I’ll support [team] until I die“. Well now Hamburg supporters will have the opportunity to support their team from beyond the grave following the clubs announcement that they will be opening a graveyard for their fans. Club president Christian Reinhard said that the graveyard would be located just behind the AOL Arena. “It won’t have coloured tombstones, but it will be a final resting place for true fans“, he commented. I would have thought Hamburg fans would rather that the AOL Arena were a graveyard for the opposition rather than their own…

Manchester United are apparently interested in 6 Juventus players: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Patrick Vieira, Fabio Cannavaro, Emerson and Lilian Thuram. Alex Ferguson said, “We were waiting to see what the situation with Juventus was. Now we know in which direction to go in terms of inquiries and, possibly, definitive offers for one or two players“.

However, according to AS, Ferguson may be too late for at least three of these. Real Madrid’s Sporting Director Predrag Mijatovic is in Turin to finalise the signings of Cannavaro, Emerson and Zambrotta. He will meet with Juve officials tomorrow to negotiate the final price - Juve are asking for €40 million and Real’s current offer is €30 million for all three. Mijatovic may also pick up Cristiano Zanetti, a favourite of Capello. These players may be joined at Real by Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Kaka.
To add a further twist Zambrotta’s agent says that his client would rather stay in Italy with AC Milan his destination. He may be joined there by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who Carlo Ancelotti believes is the ideal partner for Alberto Gilardino.

Inter have had a €38 million bid for Fernando Torres rejected by Real Madrid. Torres is also wanted by Manchester United to replace the outgoing Van Nistelrooy. But new coach Javier Aguirre has insisted that Torres is not for sale. Marseille chairman Pape Diouf has issued similar statement regarding World Cup star Franck Ribery.

Javier Saviola’s agent has said that his client will either stay at Sevilla or move to Panathinaikos after Arsene Wenger declared yesterday that he was not interested in signing the player. Saviola spent last year on loan in Seville from Barcelona who are keen to offload the Argentine. Other players on the way are Jared Borgetti from Bolton to possibly Racing Santander and Liverpool duo Jan Kromkamp (a PSV target) and Djimi Traore who may go to Bolton or Charlton.

Finally tow players who completed moves today were Holland’s Denny Landzaat who joins Wigan from AZ Alkmaar and Croatian World Cup playmaker Niko Kranjcar who is moving to Celta Vigo from Hajduk Split.

In an interview with Greek sports newspaper Protathlitis, Brazilian legend Rivaldo, who has spent the last two years in Greece with Olympiakos, said that this year will most likely be his last in the game because he was, “tired of playing so many matches and of so much pre-season training“.

In truth Rivaldo’s career has been in decline since his glory days at Barcelona in the late 90s when he helped the Catalan giants to successive championships and also won World and European player of the year. He was part of the fearsome 3R attacking trident at the 2002 World Cup along with Ronaldo and Ronadinho. He then moved to Milan but never managed to reproduce his Barca form. After a brief stint in Brazil he returned to Europe and the promise of the Champions League with Olympiakos. However like compatriot Giovanni, Rivaldo seemed to find the Greek football dull. He performed when he had to - in Europe and in the derby matches against AEK and Panathinaikos. This would buy him enough time with the fans who would then ignore his mediocre games against teams like OFI, Kallithea or Egaleo when it was obvious he could not be bothered. However, even in his better games with thrilos he was a shadow of the player we all knew. Let’s face it, if he wasn’t, he would not be playing in Greece. So well done Rivaldo for finally bowing out while we can still remember your undoubted qualities! For those of you that can’t,  here’s a taste of Ribo at his peak: his hat-trick goal in the 88th minute at the end of the 2000-2001 season which guaranteed Barcelona Champions League football:

Following, Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s announcement that he wants to leave Manchester United, speculation is mounting as to his next destination with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid leading the race for his signature. According to El Mundo, Real may offer partyman and part-time footballer Ronaldo in part-exchange for the prolific Dutch striker, as the Brazilian does not form part of Fabio Capello’s plans…

Rumour Rating: Unlikely! Ronnie is fat and injured. His knee operation will keep him out for at least a month, giving him plenty of time to work on his waistline by downing a few more burgers. The Premiership is fast and furious while Ronaldo is slow and immobile. The two don’t match! On top of this, we can’t really see Alex Ferguson, who sold David Beckham because he felt that his love of the celebrity lifestyle was getting in the way of his football, welcoming O Fenomeno, Brazil’s answer to Becks. Finally if it’s partying you’re after, you’d have to be crazy to swap Madrid for Manchester…

OK, OK we said we would put this to bed, but then we found this “photo” which made us re-think. Maybe Zidane just suffers from a nervous tick…

So who you ask is Luciano Moggi? How did he managed to bring the “Old Lady“, the team that had won 29 titles (now 27) to her knees? Here is a brief biography of the man previously known as “Lucky Luciano“.

Born in Siena in 1937, Moggi’s career started as a train station attendant in Rome. Many of the most powerful men in Italian football passed through the station where he worked. He befriended many of them and soon earned his big break when Italo Allodi offered him a job working with the junior sections of Juventus in the early 70s. This was Moggi’s big chance to impress the “big cheeses” at Juve. However, he soon moved to a new role at Roma in 1979 and then on to Lazio. His first major “successes” came at Torino in the early 1980s where he helped re-establish the team among Calcio’s elite.

In 1985, Verona took the Italian championship. While the fans credit the coach and players such as Elkjaer with the success, Serie A club directors are not so convinced. Rumours of match-fixing by Verona’s president, a close friend of Moggi emerge. In a bid to distance himself from these, Moggi moves south to join Napoli. Here he is in his element and is able to “work” quietly with the support of the mafia. Napoli begin to enjoy “fairer” treatment from referees and win the championship.

Moggi leaves Napoli in 1991. Through his connections, he helps Silvio Berlusconi acquire Gianluigi Lentini from Torino, the most expensive transfer in football history at the time. Moggi himself then returns to Torino and revives their fortunes, helping them secure European football again. There is talk of the “granata” enjoying favourable refereeing decisions and Torino’s profits sore unexpectedly. The vultures begin to circle. The press are more suspicious than ever and investigations begin into the transfer of Lentini.

Moggi jumps ship and moves to Roma. His time there is short. Once again he displays excellent timing, moving to back to Juve just as a scandal is uncovered surrounding Roma’s transfer dealings (his main responsibility). Moggi brings Lippi to Juventus and Juve win their first title in 9 years in 1995 and follow it up by winning the next two scudetti. Moggi’s popularity is at its peak.

However, once again a club with Moggi at the helm seems to enjoy extremely “favourable” refereeing but nothing can be proved. It’s at this time that the Juventus doping scandal surfaces. After a 5 year battle in the courts, the directors and manager are cleared of any involvement in or knowledge of the scandal. The blame is placed squarely on the shoulders of Juve’s medical team.Moggi’s uncanny ability to be close to controversy but to escape unscathed continues.

His downfall eventually comes due to his love of mobile phones. The prosecutor in the doping scandal had Moggi’s mobile tapped and in the spring of 2006, transcripts of conversations between Moggi, journalists and members of the refereeing community emerge. Moggi resigns. His arrogance knows no bounds. “The system [controlling the appoinment of referees] existed before my time. The only thing I wanted to ensure was that Juventus would not be unfairly treated. If you are looking for guilt, look at Milan” he says. This time he cannot escape. He issues one parting shot: “I am tired of football. Those who accuse me have destroyed my soul. Football will not be better without me and that will be proved shortly. When that happens I will no longer be around to be used as a scapegoat. Remember that…“.

The Italian sports tribunal investigating the match-fixing scandal involving several high profile Serie A clubs has ruled that Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio will play next season in Serie B, while AC Milan will get to remain in Serie A, but at a heavy(ish) price.

Juventus has been hit the hardest: they have been stripped off their last two titles they won in 2004/05 and 2005/06 and will be forced to start their campaign in Serie B next year from minus 30 points. Fiorentina will start from -12 and Lazio from -7. Milan were lucky not to be relegated as well: they will stay in Serie A, although their points from last season have been reduced by 44, meaning they won’t play in Europe, they will start their campaign next year from -15.

This means that Inter, Roma, Chievo and Palermo will play in next year’s Champions’ League (the first two qualify directly), while Lecce, Messina and Treviso get another chance at playing in Serie A (they had been relegated at the end of the last season).

All in all, Milan should be extremely happy that they have been allowed to stay in Serie A: the prosecutors had originally requested that they be relegated too…Juventus should consider themselves lucky too, as the prosecutors’ original request was that they’d be relegated to Serie C… In Serie B and with 30 points penalisation, they may not get promoted back to Serie A for a while, which will make the next 1-2 years very interesting (serves them right!).

Following his resignation, Marcello Lippi has plenty of spare time on his hands and he is planning to use at least some of it to learn a new language. Apparently, he has enrolled with a foreign language school in Milan. His choice of course (English) may provide some clues as to his future destination - the English Premiership. A source close to Lippi revealed, “it is 70% certain that Lippi will work in the Premiership. If Manchester United offer him a contract he will accept. However, at the moment feels that his lack of English is a disadvantage so he is planning to start an intensive course to overcome this issue“.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be monitoring Lippi’s progress with interest as his the future may depend on Lippi’s aptitude for languages!

A lot of our articles over the past few days have focussed on the now infamous Zidane head-butt on Marco Materazzi in Sunday’s World Cup final. We have heard what the two protagonists have had to say. It is now time to put the incident to bed. Here we take one last look at how the incident was reported in different parts of the world. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words…

According to Japanese TV:

According to Italian TV:

According to French TV:

According to American TV:

According to British TV:

According to Al Jazeera TV

Accodring to the anti-Italian German press:

Marcello Lippi and Jurgen Klinsmann both quit as coaches of Italy and Germany today. Coincidence? Probably, but these were two of the most successful coaches at the World Cup. The problem seems to have been the pressure they were both under prior to the tournament.

Klinsmann, especially, was heavily criticised in the German media due to the host nation’s poor run of form prior to the tournament. Indeed, had Germany not beaten what was effectively the US’s second team 4-1 in a friendly in Dortmund, he would have probably been sacked. Lippi’s name too had been dragged through the mud due to his links with the “calciopoli” scandal.

Yet suddenly they are both heroes who can do not wrong and all is forgotten/forgiven. While the press may have short memories, Klinsmann and Lippi do not. They know that at the first signs of things going wrong the press will turn on them again - too much success does not make an interesting story after all.Need examples? Otto Rehhagel - worshipped following Greece’s unexpected Euro 2004 victory but now “useless” after Greece’s failure to qualify for Germany. Eriksson hailed following England’s 5-1 victory in Germany in 2001, to the extent that a song was written about him, but now a waste of money for failing to inspire England’s “golden generation” who (according only to the English media) should have won the title with ease.  No question of underperforming players or overhyped expectations - no, no, it was the coach’s fault on both occasions!

Marcello, Jurgen you have done the right thing!

Zinedine Zidane finally gave his version of the events which lead to his sending off. Speaking to Canal Plus earlier this evening, ZZ apologised especially to the children and viewing public for his behaviour but said that he did not regret what he had done. Zizou said that Materazzi had used “some very strong words” and that the insults were directed at his mother and his sister. However, he did not reveal what everyone was waiting to hear - the exact words Materazzi used. This looks now looks like becoming one of those football mysteries that will never be resolved, such as why Ronaldo suffered convulsions before the final at France 1998.