News
Everything we learned from the RAI Calciopoli special investigation that aired this evening
![](https://maxstatman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/72C22848-9B95-4782-AFB4-E28732D20E9D.jpeg)
Italian football has long been plagued by allegations of corruption, with the 2006 Calciopoli scandal being one of the most infamous. Recently, Rai 3, an Italian television network, aired a special investigation on the scandal, which suggested that Juventus were not the only club involved in the controversy.
The programme included new interviews, including with Paolo Bergamo, the refereeing designator from 1999 to 2005. According to Bergamo, Inter President Massimo Moratti called him in July 2002 to ask why referees seemed to have a bias against Inter. Bergamo claimed that he and Moratti were joined by their wives and that Moratti made the accusation within five minutes of the dinner starting.
The investigative programme also reported that Inter had signed a secret agreement to compensate those involved in illegal wiretaps and investigations, including Bergamo. This revelation may be linked to the controversy that saw former players such as Christian Vieri suing Inter for having private investigators trail them and listen in on their calls to ensure they weren’t partying too much.
The programme also revealed that Giandomenico Lepore, the general prosecutor of Naples from 2004 to 2011, had suspicions that other clubs were involved in Calciopoli but could not investigate further. Lepore claimed that a supplement in Espresso magazine reported all the wiretaps, and then suddenly all the phones involved were shut down, leaving only Juventus as the target of the investigation. Lepore suggested that Inter was the next club on the list to be investigated.
Read more:
There have also been longstanding claims that Giacinto Facchetti, an Inter legend, had similar phone calls with the refereeing designator to Luciano Moggi, who was considered the head of the system brought down by Calciopoli. Bergamo admitted to having a conversation with Facchetti before a Coppa Italia semi-final, which was assigned to Paolo Bertini. Bergamo praised Bertini, stating, “Only four wins with him? Then let’s boost that score to five wins,” which suggests that he may have been biased in favour of Inter.
The Calciopoli scandal resulted in Juventus being stripped of two Serie A titles and being relegated to Serie B. The 2005-06 Scudetto was handed to Inter. However, the programme suggests that other clubs may have been involved and that Inter may have been saved by a leak to the media. These revelations may rekindle interest in the Calciopoli scandal and raise questions about whether other clubs were involved in corruption in Italian football.