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Originally Posted by jofillips
italian football is notorious for paying off refs, from what i've read it was common-practice in the 90's and i guess hasn't changed a bit.
Add-on to this the behaviour of their fans, and you can't help but think how much FIFA protects the serie A.
Italy is without doubt the 'sickman' of europe right now, none of their teams should be in any european competition right now...
If even ONE of those charges was levelled at the premiership, british clubs would be banned from europe for five years in a flash - thats why i hate sepp blatter, he seems to have utter hatred for british football and only wants to protect the 'stars'.
oh, and as far as i know pretty much none of the italian teams were relegated: the way the charges were brought down to nothing over about 2 months was incredibly indicative of how corrupt italian football is.
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The charges were brought down because they were absolutely ridiculous. None of the teams were deemed guilty of Section 6 (proven match-fixing, bribery or foulplay)... they were deemed guilty on Section 1 (suspicion of foul play and unsportsmanlike conduct). The maximum penalty for this is supposed to be a fine and point penalties. Rather, they relegated three teams, one down TWO divisions, with massive point penalties. Naturally, the appeal court had to reduce them, lest the whole thing be thrown out on a misapplication of the Sporting Laws. Juventus was still punished severely for a Section 1 violation, having been relegated, stripped of two titles (that is apparently back in courts), and having a 17 point penalty in Serie B (and still winning that league without half their stars).
Its notorious for allegations of paying off refs, but there are only two cases where it was proven. Once in the 1980s, and once with Genoa in 2005.
Its also important to note that its not just Italy... England, Spain, Germany and France have all had allegations of foul play and proven allegations of foul play. There was a BBC report in 2006 that 6-8 Premiership managers would (or possibly have already) accepted "illegal payments" (bribes) for favorable player transfers. There are allegations in Spain that Real Madrid has favored referees, but the liga refuses to take action at risk of destroying the league's credibility. France has had ref bribing scandals, and Germany had a proven one in the 1970s, and insider betting just recently.
As for Italy getting special treatment... its interesting to note that when Juventus threatened to take the FIGC to civil court over the allegations and punishment, that is when UEFA threatened to pull Italy and its member clubs from all European competitions for five years. Essentially making Juve Italy's most hated club forever and restoring their honor, or taking the hit for Italy and stability.
Funny they don't want foulplay, but when a team tries to air everybody's dirty laundry in a binding legal court... they freak out.
Liverpool got a nice favor from UEFA by being allowed to defend their title... so I wouldn't say they're completely biased against England.
I think where we'll agree is that its the responsibility of UEFA and FIFA to crackdown on foul play in a strong way, as well as the football associations... especially when there's suspicion of cronyism and bias at those levels. However, Blatter and Platini are not exactly the types that can do this... especially Blatter.