Prime Minister Mario Monti suggests three-year veto on Italian football

By David Gold

May 30 – Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti has suggested that football be suspended in the country for as long as three years as a result of the latest match-fixing investigation.

Police have searched the homes of players, administrators and officials of clubs from the Italian top-flight, Serie A, to the lower leagues.

Lazio captain Stefano Mauri was arrested in the investigation, while two Italy internationals, Leonardo Bonucci (pictured below) and Domenico Criscito, have both been mentioned during the inquiries.

Criscito was dropped from Italy’s 2012 European Championship squad to clear his name, though Bonucci was selected by national team coach Cesare Prandelli.

Former Siena coach Antonio Conte, the manager of Juventus, who this season won Serie A unbeaten, has also been questioned by police.

However, the country is no stranger to match-fixing scandals.

Last year an investigation took place into match-fixing in the lower leagues of Italian football.

As a result Atalanta (pictured below), promoted to Serie A last season, started the new season with a six-point penalty, while another top-flight team, Chievo Verona, avoided a points penalty after pleading guilty to involvement.

There were 17 teams and 17 individuals handed penalties and suspensions respectively for their roles.

Among them was former Italy international Cristiano Doni and former Bologna forward Beppe Signori, who was banned from all football activity for five years.

And in 2006, just before the country’s World Cup triumph in Germany, the Calciopoli scandal broke.

That match-fixing affair led to the champions, Juventus, being stripped of their title and relegated to Serie B, as well as punishments being handed out to four other teams – AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina.

“I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to suspend the game for two or three years,” Monti (pictured top) said.

“It’s particularly sad when a world which should be an expression of the highest values – sport, youth, competition, fairness turns out to be a mass of foul play, falsehood and demagoguery.”

Monti added that this was not “a proposal by the Government but a question I am asking”.

Last year the Italian Interior Ministry set up a match-fixing taskforce to deal with the problem.

Football’s popularity in Italy meant that Monti was always going to find it difficult to attract support for his idea.

“I understand and share the bitterness of Prime Minister Monti,” Italian Football Federation (FIGC) President Giancarlo Abete said in a statement.

“But to stop the championship would mean humiliating all of football, penalising the majority who work honestly and it would also mean the loss of thousands of jobs.

“It is not the solution.”

Palermo’s notoriously enigmatic President Maurizio Zamparini, famed for his frequent hiring and firing of coaches, was less diplomatic.

“Before saying we need to stop playing football he should think about his own problems and everything he is destroying and closing down with his laws,” he said.

“Monti is showing his ignorance because professional football clubs pay €800 million (£640 million/$1 billion) to the state every year.”

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