It seems scandal and Serie A are striving to become synonymous, intentionally or unintentionally.
Not to long ago in 2006, Juventus, Fiorentina, AC Milan, Lazio, and Reginna were punished for match fixing. The various teams selected favorable referees to officiate games. This scandal started when Juventus president Luciano Moggi had his conversations with the top ranked officials of Italian football released in a newspaper, which featured him trying (and succeeding) to influence the appointment of officials.
All clubs included got points deducted and Juventus got relegated to Serie B, the lower league just beneath the Serie A; Inter began their reign as Italian giants.
Move on to 2010, a very strange thing happened, a massive £2million was staked with online giant Betfair on Italian clubs Chievo and Catania finishing level—with a further £217,000 on 1-1. Such large sums have rarely been bet on teams in the bottom half of any league. Imagine betting £2million on Sunderland playing Burnley.
This came as a shock that people will actually remember a fixture like this being played when Milan played Napoli, Manchester hosted Liverpool in the English Premier League and the huge bet was made in the UK.
With Italy still fresh from the 2006 scandal and this game already being investigated, Italy could take a path that has no light at the end of the tunnel, bringing shame to the already disgraced Italian institution.
For the love of the beautiful game, let us hope this is a false alarm.
