In this research, Fink's（1986） theory of crisis management will be utilized to analyze the scandal.
Prodromal Crisis Stage – Caution and Signs
In 2002, the former coach of AS Roma Football club, Zdenek Zeman who claimed it was time for Italian football to clean up its act by 'throwing out its chemists’ and made references to the 'muscular physiques of several Juventus players (World Soccer News, 2005). The prosecution of Turin started the investigation on the doping case. The doctor of Juventus Riccardo Agricola and the chief executive of Juventus Antonio Giraudo were also under investigation via
interception of phone conversations.
In addition to the doping allegations, the creation of false bank accounts by Juventus and the gambling affairs of players were under investigation.
An inquiry in Naples was more relevant to this particular scandal. The magistrates in Naples were investigating the mafia of the city in 2004 due to the discovery of some illegal betting calls. The magistrates of Naples had issued an order
to wiretap the phone of Luciano Moggi. In other cities, different investigations were also undergoing. The
interceptions of several phone conversations were used to prove the manipulation and designation of referees as well as other related scams. In Parma, the gambling affairs were uncovered.
After the initial doping allegations, additional
accusations emerged. In 2004, the magistrates of Naples ordered to wiretap Luciano Moggi's phone conversation in order to investigate illegal betting and possible ties to the mafia. Meanwhile in Naples, the manipulation of referee designation was uncovered. Many other accusations were also surfacing in several major Italian cities (Gazzetta, 2006.05.04).
The Roman magistrates focused on the illegal activities of GEA World, a sport agency. GEA World was presided over by Alessandro Moggi, the son of Luciano Moggi, which is a company mostly comprised of sons and daughters of people in power, such as politicians and bankers, including the son of Italian national team coach, Marcello Lippi. Many Juventus players were represented by Alessandro Moggi, an agent at GEA, who alone controlled an extraordinary 12.3 percent of the football market in Italy, while GEA had a share of nearly 20 percent (Foot, 2007). Also, the
magistrates of Rome were looking into the involvement of Franco Zavaglia, managing director of GEA World, which is
the largest company of football agents in Italy with over 220 professional footballers and coaches on their books.
Moggi’s son Alessandro ran it. (Italian Calcio Blog, 2007).
In Perugia, the magistrates were investigating the
bankruptcy of the Perugia football club and the illegal activities of GEA World.
Table 5-1
Investigations in Different Cities
Region Investigation
Rome Concerning GEA, the largest company of football agents in Italy with over 220
professional footballers and coaches on their books. Moggi’s son Alessandro ran it.
Turin Inquiry into the doping of Juventus players in the 1990s involved phone taps that revealed further disturbing aspects of the Moggi system. (Foot, 2006)
Inquiry into False bank accounts, gambling among players
Naples Inquiry into the Neapolitan version of the mafia, the Camorra, had uncovered an illegal betting ring involving players and referees,
and investigating magistrates had ordered phone taps on 6 or so mobile phones of Luciano Moggi in 2004(Foot, 2007).
This started after the telephone
conversations were leaked to the press. The central figure is Luciano Moggi, but
magistrates were questioning 41 people after identifying 19 matches which they believe to be suspicious.
Parma Investigators unearthed evidence of a gambling scam involving Serie A players.
Perugia Investigation into the bankruptcy of the Perugia football club and GEA World.
Note. Gazzetta (2006.05.11 & 2006.05.12)
In the spring of 2006, ‘Gazzetta dello Sport’ reporter, Ruggiero Palombo, had written: L'Italia è il Paese delle intercettazioni telefoniche [Italy is the country of phone-tapping]. He anticipated the use of wire-tapping to monitor crucial characters of Italian football. This was the last sign of the scandal.
Acute Crisis Stage – The Emergence of the Crisis In May, the magistrates of Turin had sent a dossier related to the investigation into important football characters to the president of FIGC, Franco Carraro, which he later sent to the inquiry office head of FIGC Italo Papa and UEFA. The content of the dossier regarded an FIGC official, a football club and a referee appointer (Gazzetta, 2006).
On May 3rd, 2006, the FIGC had issued an announcement that the federation had opened an investigation. Soon after that, names were revealed, among which were managers, referees, and journalists. On May 4th, the newspapers Gazzetta dello Sport, Repubblica and Corriere della Sera had all widely reported the interception involving the general manager of Juventus, Luciano Moggi, the chief executive, Antonio Giraudo, and the vice president, Innocenzo Mazzini.
Reports from the Italian press had shown several
conversations that revealed the general manager Luciano Moggi had constantly made contact and phone calls to referee designators and also the official of AIA Pierluigi Pairetto.
In an excerpt of those phone calls, Luciano Moggi not only made a request for which referee he wanted to be assigned to the match, but also complained about judgments made by the referees. According to the content, affected matches could have been those from the season in 2004/05 of Serie A, and also the most prestigious international tournament,
the UEFA Champions League. Pairetto was also the member of the Refereeing Commission of UEFA (Gazzetta, 2006.05.05).
There were dozens of such conversations like the example mentioned above.
In fact, according to the investigators, Moggi received or made an average of 416 calls per day. He had 6 mobile phones and 300 SIM cards. In 9 months, he made or received 100,000 calls (Foot, 2007). He had made contact with
officials from FIGC, referee designators, agents, and TV show presenters.
Here are some excerpts from the intercepted conversations between Moggi and referees, TV show ‘Il Processo di Biscardi’
presenter Aldo Biscardi, Innocenzo Mazzini, and other important figures in the world of Italian football.
Table 5-2
Excerpts of Wiretaps
• Luciano Moggi talked to the referee designator Pierluigi Pairetto complaining about the referee that Pairetto had appointed to the match. Moggi also asked Pairetto to appoint a referee with a bias against Ajax in UEFA Champions League.
• Luciano Moggi had conversed with the vice
president of FIGC, Innocenzo Mazzini, and called him a ‘friend’ in the phone call.
• Luciano had conversations with Antonio Giraudo about the designation of referees
• Luciano Moggi also talked with his son,
Alessandro Moggi about the transfer of players and coaches
• Luciano Moggi called Aldo Biscardi about manipulating the slow motion footage on the football comment show ’Il Processo di Biscardi’
to conceal the bias of referees on Juventus
• Luciano Moggi talked about the election of the FIGC's president with Innocenzo Mazzini
• Luciano Moggi talked about the election of the FIGC's president with Innocenzo Mazzini
• Luciano Moggi talked about the Czech coach Zdenek Zeman. Luciano seemed to be resentful towards Zeman expressed that he wanted to ‘hit him with a piece of wood’. Zdenek Zemen had previously accused Juve players of being doped in the early 1990’s
Note. From Gazzetta dello Sport (2006.05.04 &
2006.05.05. & 2006.05.06)
These fragments of conversations were some examples from the content of the wiretaps of Luciano Moggi. The excerpts revealed many important characters involved in this scandal.
New facts were coming out day by day. As more and more evidence came up, things had become more complicated and critical. The wiretapped conversations had shown that it could be the worst scandal in the last 20 years of the Italian football. The investigation and the interrogation of this scandal went on in different cities. The wiretapped
conversations became evidence of which the designation of referees had been manipulated as well as other related fraud.
In Parma, the gambling affairs were uncovered; in Perugia, the magistrates were investigating the bankruptcy of Perugia football club as well as the illegal activities of GEA World (Gazzetta, 2006.05.11).
UEFA had started a disciplinary procedure against
Pierluigi Pairetto and had closed with an official reproach on the May 5th. Pairetto's World Cup passes had been revoked for having violated the rules of conduct. Luciano Moggi and Alessandro Moggi were told that they were being investigated as part of a criminal inquiry relating to the 2004-05 season.
Luciano Moggi was alleged to be the head responsible for manipulating the appointment of referees (Gazzetta,
2006.05.06). They were joined by 9 referees, 11 linesmen, and 21 others. The president Franco Carraro resigned on the May 8th. Following the resignation of the president, was
also the vice president of FIGC Innocenzo Mazzini, who had been found having suspicious talks with Luciano Moggi. The president of the Italian referee association, Tullio Lanese, resigned on the May 10th. 41 persons and 19 matches from Serie A and B were under investigation up to May 12th.
Juventus, AC Milan Fiorentina, and Lazio were involved.
Additionally, a member of the National team and a player from Juventus Gianluigi Buffon were involved in the scandal and had been interrogated in Parma.
On May 14th, FIGC had withdrawn the accreditation of 2 referees and 2 linesmen. And all of whom were involved with the World Cup. The designator Paolo Bergamo and Pierluigi Pairetto were also suspended. Although Juventus had clinched their 29th Scudetto (trophy of Italian championship).
On May 16th, Luciano Moggi had announced his resignation while FIGC nominated their extraordinary commissioner Guido Rossi, to take charge of this scandal. The famous TV show host of “il Processo di Biscardi”, Aldo Biscardi, left his job because of the allegation that he took directions from Luciano Moggi to control the content of slow motion plays to conceal the biased calls toward Juventus (Foot, 2007).
On the May of 18th, the financial guard (La Guardia di Finanza) of Turin conducted a perquisition at the center of Juventus approved by the magistrates of Turin (Juventus, 2006.05.16). The financial guard also went for the residence
of Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo to make a perquisition.
It referred to a bad sign in Italy. First, the search always found something. Second, it meant that one's political protection has disappeared. Moggi was isolated and
vulnerable. He had lived and worked on the phone, but when the scandal broke, many of his former ‘friends’ abandoned him. La Gazzetta dello Sport described him as ‘shut up inside his home, with his 6 silent mobiles which don’t ring any more’.
Not only Juventus, there was other new evidence shown that Lazio, AC Milan, and Fiorentina were also at risk in the scandal. They were all accused for the same charge along with Luciano Moggi of manipulating the matches in 2004-05 seasons.
The financial guard had searched the office of AC Milan and Internazionale Milano club from the investigation of Turin into false statement in account by the former
management of Juventus.
Documents on player transfer’s rosters and team budgets were taken from the offices of several other clubs as well, with the focus on transfers involving Juventus.
According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Milan chairman Adriano Galliani, who was also President of Italian professional league (LNP), apparently had official Leonardo Meani made arrangements with referees commission
secretary Manfredi Martino in which Meani was informed by Martino 2 days before the match against Chievo football club that Gianluca Paparesta would officiate the match. Martino also told Meani that the team's linesman of choice, Claudio Puglisi, had been appointed to the match (Gazzetta,
2006.05.11).
Lazio and Fiorentina were mired in difficulties as well (Gazzetta, 2006.05 13). The president of Lazio Claudio Lotito was found having conversation with former vice president of FIGC Innocenzo Mazzini (Gazzetta, 2006.05.10).
In the talk, he complained about Diego Della Valle had made him "a bandit's offer" in relation to their game against Fiorentina at the end of the 2004-05 season. He was also under investigation of the magistrates in Milan on suspicion of market-rigging involving Lazio a share. Also in the phone interception that the brothers, owner and president of Fiorentina Diego Della Valle and Andrea Della Valle had complained about refereeing decisions with Luciano Moggi and FIGC official Paolo Bergamo in the 2004-05 season when the club were at risk of being demoted to Serie B.
On May 16th, Francesco Saverio Borrelli was nominated as the head of the investigation office (L’Ufficio d’Indagini) in FIGC. Soon, FIGC had officially started their
investigation work since 5th June.
The greatest event of football- World Cup was about to kick off in several days on June 9th. However, some players
had to go to different cities for different inquiries for this scandal (Gazzetta, 2006.05.12). For example, Buffon the world well-known goalkeeper of Italian national team and Juventus were involved in illegal betting that was under the investigation in Parma. And the captain of the national team Fabio Cannavaro had been warning for his inappropriate comment in public (Gazzetta, 2006.05.06).
The quadrennial FIFA World Cup is the most important international event in the football world. Nevertheless, the scandal had undermined the morale of the team. The coach, Marcello Lippi was also involved for his son Davide Lippi had been investigated for the position in GEA World. Marcello himself was also interrogated for Moggi put pressure upon him for picking up the players who were belonged to the GEA World. Moreover, there were 13 players among 23 played for the 4 clubs related to the scandal (FIGC, 2006). Some players had to go to different cities for different inquiry for this scandal.
Table 5-3
List of Players in Involved Clubs
Juventus (5) Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon,
Alessandro Del Piero, Mauro Camoranesi, Gianluca Zambrotta,
AC Milan (5) Gennaro Gattuso, Alberto, Gilardino, Filippo Inzaghi, Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Nesta
Lazio (2) Angelo Peruzzi, Massimo Oddo Fiorentina (1) Luca Toni
Note. FIGC (2006)& Gazzetta dello Sport (2006.05.15)
Chronic Crisis Stage - The Crisis Handling Stage
Resignation of BoD
On May 11th, after the assembly of shareholders of Juventus, all the members of Board of Director (BoD) of Juventus resigned in June 29th. Juventus also immediately proved the decision of the general manager Luciano Moggi who was the key role of the scandal involved the club (Juventus, 2006.05.16).
Adaption of Code of Ethics
On May 25th, June 5th, and June 21th, Juventus made a significant change regarding the operation of corporate.
On June 5th, 2006, Juventus adopted a model of organization, management, and control under the clause D. Lgs. 231/2001
(Juventus, 2006.06.29). Meanwhile, Juventus had nominated the Organism of Surveillance (Organismo di Vigilanza) . The Organism of Surveillance has the duty of monitoring on the function and the model of organization, management and control as well as looking after the updating.
The influence of the scandal, the Italian national team had come tumbling out of the group stage. They made it to the round of 16. Following the triumph against Czech Republic 2-0, the federal prosecutor Stefano Palazzi had the 4 clubs and 26 personages including managers from clubs, officials from FIGC and related referees, been prosecuted (Gazzetta, 2006.06.26).
The 4 clubs, Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were all at risk of the relegation or were possible that the sanction could have been requested. It would all depend on whether the judges accept it or not.
All the risks for 4 clubs are sport sanctions as far as expulsion from the Serie A and European championships and points deduction.
The article 1 of the code sport justice riguarda the
‘general duty and obligation’ (doveri e gli obblighi generali) while the article 6 is related to ‘the crime of sport and the obligation of denunciation’ (illecito sportivo e obbligo di denunzia).
Table 5-4
Content of Violated Clause
Article 1 General Duties
Clubs and staff have the duty of “ acting in accordance with the principles of honesty, correctness and probity.”
Article 2 Responsibility for physical person and clubs Managers who are the legal representatives of the club should also consider themselves be responsible for the infractions that put on the same clubs until proved otherwise.
Article 6 Sporting Fraud (Illecito sportivo)
When someone who tries to ‘by using any means to alter the progress or the result of a match that is to assure of an advantage in ranking.’
Note. FIGC (2006.06.26)
After the prosecution, Italian national team still had their victory on Australians in the round of 16 on June 27th.
However, the new-appointed team manager of Juventus,
Gianluca Pessotto fell from the roof of Juventus building with his hand holding a rosary beads. It is believed that
he was attempting suicide. His wife said that the scandal had made her husband depressed.
On June 29th, in front of 200 journalists, the ‘sporting trial’ (Gazzetta, 2006.06.29) linked to the scandals opened in Rome. 4 clubs, as well as a number of referees and administrators were all ‘on trial’. Many of the
Italian-based players in Germany (including foreign stars such as Patrick Vieira and Davide Trezeguet) had no idea where they would be playing the following season, or if they would be taking part in the Champion League whilst Italian were fighting Ukrainian national team (Foot, 2007).
Right on the same day, the assembly of shareholders had been held in Turin under the presidency of Franzo Grande Stevens. In the assembly, 9 were nominated to be the members of the new BoD of Juventus, which last 3 years until June 30th 2009. Giovanni Cobolli Gigli was the new president;
Jean-Claude Blanc had been nominated as a new Chief
Executive. Juventus also had adapted a new Ethical Code in order to reestablish the confidence for shareholders (Juventus, 2006.06.29). Moreover, as mentioned in chapter 2, once the crisis was emerged, it is also the turning point for an organization. Now the organization has the chance to get rid of the defect and improvement can be made as well within the organization.
In early July, the federal prosecutor Stefano Palazzi had proposed to the federal court (Corte d’Appello Federale)
in the first grade of his suggestion of the punishment. The suggestion in his report of punishment was so harsh and stern toward the clubs and managers. Palazzi asked for all 4 clubs to be relegated, with point’s deductions. For Juventus, Palazzi had strongly suggested that they should go down lower than the Serie B (Repubblica, 2006).
The same day, the national team of Italy defeated Germany and had their way into the final against French. The Italians were all united to see the triumph.
However, there were already voices of the amnesty: "The government cannot get involved in this issue," Justice Minister Clemente Mastella told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Friday. "But I do think the majority of fans want an amnesty. As a fan, let me say this: is it fair that (Fabio) Cannavaro and (Alessandro) Del Piero and so many others should play in the third division after everything they have done?" (Foot, 2007).
On July 9th, the Italian national team had claimed their victory in the PK shootout with 5-3. They had won 4 titles, next to the 5 times of Brazil. La Gazzetta sold a record 2.3 million copies, over weeks of reprints, of its victory edition. Yet the celebrations were to be cut short very quickly, as the scandal sped on towards a conclusion in Rome
On July 9th, the Italian national team had claimed their victory in the PK shootout with 5-3. They had won 4 titles, next to the 5 times of Brazil. La Gazzetta sold a record 2.3 million copies, over weeks of reprints, of its victory edition. Yet the celebrations were to be cut short very quickly, as the scandal sped on towards a conclusion in Rome