Digital Journal — It was three hours of nail-biting, seat-shifting soccer action, but in the end Italy emerged victorious as World Cup champions against France. Some said it was anyone’s game but thousands rooted against Italy, snubbing the team that searched desperately for the title since 1982.
Victory was sweet for the Italians. But it will also be short. That’s because a veil of scandal and corruption is looming over the country’s top soccer teams and national heroes, captain Fabio Cannavaro, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and striker Alessandro del Piero — just a few of the notables who play for Italian teams accused of rigging games and bribing officials.
Think about it: Today, France’s Zinédine Zidane was awarded the Adidas Golden Ball for best player (voted by journalists covering the event) in the World Cup series, only one day after his disgraceful headbutt to Italy’s Marco Materazzi. The world has already forgotten about the shameful outburst of the star Frenchman because there are bigger Italian fish to fry. In less than one week, the game and its results could simply be a distant memory and the world could turn its back on the country crazed and praised for football finesse.
The issue and crime sits on the bench of Italy’s most talented, well-paid “Serie A” clubs that have thrown the sport into a two-month scandal through match-fixing, bullying and disloyalty. The dominant team is the powerful Juventus — Italian league champs for the last two years. The three other teams caught up in the disgrace are AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio.
Eight of Juve’s players were in last night’s final, including three in the France line-up. And now, these premium players may find themselves unemployed or dropped to the lowest ranks of the Italian soccer universe, victims of the scandal.
Although some players’ names have surfaced in alleged connections to illegal betting and false bookkeeping, no players have been implicated yet. But team officials have been caught requesting friendly referees assigned to their matches or manipulating games.
Many sports experts say the results are already written and the four tainted clubs will surely be punished. Rightfully so, Juventus will likely be demoted one level to the “Serie B” rank, while the other three will remain in the top conference with points deducted to start.
But what’s to be said of the national sport? Can a country celebrate a global victory while it’s surrounded by so much scandal? Many reports already predict it will only take a couple of years for the top teams to regain their strength and popularity.
But the rest of the world will not forget. And that’s the unfortunate part: Italians everywhere can be proud their team is the World Cup champ, but they can barely celebrate the win — not while the rest of the world condemns the whole nation for the mistakes of a few poor sports.
