History

The Scandal That Killed Italian Football FOREVER The Calciopoli scandal shattered Italian football’s legacy. Discover how media, power, and corruption brought down Italy’s biggest clubs. RayWrites July 3, 2025 Football is a game of trust.Trust of the players in themselves.Trust between teammates.A manager’s trust in his players. But even more important than all of that…Is a fan’s trust in football itself. Football is like an iceberg.Of a giant iceberg, on average, you can only see 10 to 15% above the surface.90% of it stays hidden underwater. And that’s why—Whenever a massive iceberg breaks…It’s certain that waves will follow. In the mid-2000s, a scandal erupted that would alter the course of Italian football forever. It wasn’t just about a few bad referee decisions or minor bribes—it was a complete system designed to control every aspect of the game. From club owners with political ambitions to shadowy player agencies and media conspiracies, this was the real-life chessboard on which Italian football lost its soul. At the heart of this scandal lies one powerful question: Why is everyone in Italian football so hungry for power? The Roots of Power in Italian Football In Italy, football isn’t just a sport—it’s a path to influence. The game has historically been controlled by ultra-wealthy families who own not only clubs but also newspapers, television channels, and media houses. Success in football was often seen as the golden ticket to national power. One such example is Silvio Berlusconi. Before Berlusconi entered football, AC Milan was struggling. The club was riddled with debt, their on-field performances were in shambles, and fans were begging for salvation. In 1986, banners at San Siro literally pleaded for Berlusconi to buy the club. And he did. Before Berlusconi, AC Milan had won just 10 Serie A titles and two European Cups in their 65-year history. Within the first 10 years of his ownership, Milan won 5 league titles and 3 UEFA Champions League trophies. Berlusconi had become the very definition of success in Italian football. His influence grew beyond sport—he became Italy’s longest-serving Prime Minister, showing how intertwined politics and football had become. Enter Luciano Moggi: The Real Puppet Master Luciano Moggi, a former sporting director at Juventus, wasn’t a billionaire, nor a media mogul. But what he lacked in wealth, he made up for in cunning. Moggi didn’t need to own TV stations—he owned people. He built his empire on three pillars: referees, media, and players. 1. The Referee Web Moggi realized early that controlling referees could tip matches without spending a single Euro. And he didn’t need to bribe them with cash—he used favors. Moggi would promise referees that if they toed the line, they’d be assigned high-profile matches. He’d promise jobs for their relatives, promotions, or future opportunities. In return, the referees overlooked harsh tackles by Juventus players, handed out soft penalties to opponents, and gave red cards for minor fouls. One match before a crucial game? Suspend the in-form player from the opposition. This favoritism became so normalized that fans started noticing patterns—but they were powerless. Because the media wouldn’t show it. 2. Silencing the Media Moggi’s grip over the media was as powerful as his control over referees. Juventus, being the most successful and followed club in Italy, had an unspoken agreement with top media houses: don’t highlight mistakes that benefit Juve, or face consequences. Any controversial referee decisions were conveniently not shown on TV. If 40,000 fans in a stadium saw something questionable, they wouldn’t find a replay later at home. The media’s job was to shape perception—and they did. Moggi also manipulated the media using fear. Any journalist or outlet that refused to play ball would find themselves blacklisted. Their access to player interviews or transfer stories would vanish. And if that wasn’t enough, the media owners themselves were club stakeholders. Many had deep-rooted connections to Juventus or needed Juventus for insider news. No club access meant no readership—so they obeyed. 3. The Player Monopoly: GEA World Perhaps the most disturbing pillar of Moggi’s empire was his influence over players through GEA World, a player agency owned by his son. At one point, 1 in every 4 Serie A players was signed with GEA World. That’s 25% of Italy’s top-tier professionals under Moggi’s family umbrella. Now imagine a club with 8-9 players signed to this agency. That club had no choice but to maintain good relations with Moggi if they wanted to keep their team intact. Transfers, negotiations, even playing time—it was all affected. And the worst part? GEA World allegedly used threats and coercion to force young talents to sign with them, leveraging ties to the criminal underworld. The Wiretap That Brought It All Down It all came crashing down when a single phone call changed everything. A match between Messina vs. Venezia was about to be played. Hours before the game, a phone call was intercepted between Salvatore Armea (a former FIGC official) and a betting company owner. In that call, Armea revealed Messina would win because the “Black Man” had given the green light. The “Black Man” was one of several code words used to describe different powerful figures: the Handsome One, the Saint, the Great Boss. This wasn’t just speculation anymore. Investigators had proof. Through Italy’s largest telecom company—Telecom Italia—authorities accessed over 200,000 wiretaps within days. They uncovered a vast network of corruption involving club owners, players, agents, referees, administrators, and even the heads of the Italian Football Federation. Everyone Was Involved Adriano Galliani (then-president of AC Milan), Innocenzo Mazzini (Vice-President of the Italian Football Federation), and even FIGC President Franco Carraro were all exposed. Carraro had previously been AC Milan’s president and had been involved in another controversy—granting European passports to non-EU players, helping clubs bypass limits on foreign players. Multiple clubs were penalized for this illegal practice. But one club, Inter Milan, wasn’t. The Fall of Juventus and the Others As pressure from the public rose, mass resignations followed. Carraro, Galliani, Mazzini—all stepped down. The Italian Olympic Committee