Growing Italian Soccer Scandal

Yesterday, Italy's paramilitary police, the Carabinieri, searched the offices of Italy's soccer federation in connection with a growing corruption scandal involving, primarily, "sports fraud." Managers of some of Italy's most widely loved teams, including AC Milan and Juventus, are suspected of fixing matches and conspiring to appoint particular referees for particular assignments. The (London) Times has a good narrative of the scandal, along with speculation about its potential impact on Italy's world cup hopes, here. An interesting feature of European soccer is that even top franchises like Juventus can be effectively "demoted" to the minor leagues. My understanding is that such a thing would typically happen if there were a series of bad years; but it seems also available as a punitive measure.

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