Luciano Moggi is considered to be the big baddie of Italian football. Involved in a lot of controversy over his career, he was however, one of the most influential characters in Serie A.
Born on July 10, 1037, in Moticiano near Siena, he began his career in football as a mediocre defender in Serie D teams. As director he began with Juventus in the 1970s. His boss was Italo Allodi for whom he developed a network of scouts in the search for young talent. Among his “discoveries” were Paolo Rossi, Claudio Gentile and Gaetano Scirea. After a couple of years, he left Turin and began to work for Roma President Gaetano Anzalone as transfer consultant. He was the one who brought Roberto Pruzzo to the wrong side of the Tiber, anticipating Juve.
He did not last long with Roma. When Dino Viola became president, he found out that Moggi, before a game against Ascoli at home, had dined with the referee. Viola was not pleased and Moggi was kicked out.
In the summer of 1980 Lazio were relegated following the Totonero scandal. There was a need to rebuild and President Umberto Lenzini gave the reins to Moggi who became managing director. He stayed two years, also working as sporting director, had frequent clashes with Antonio Sbardella, and quit after two years.
In 1982 he joined Torino and stayed for five years obtaining a second place in the 1984-85 season. He left after heavy criticism, following a cut in expenditure which the fans did not agree with.
In June 1987 he signed for Napoli who had just won their first scudetto with Diego Armando Maradona. With Napoli he won the UEFA Cup in 1989, scudetto and Supercoppa in 1990. In 1991 he left and went back to Torino with whom he reached the UEFA Cup final in 1992 and won a Coppa Italia in 1993.
In 1994 he got into trouble. Together with his collaborator Luigi Pavese, he was accused of favouring prostitution. Apparently, some prostitutes, invited by him, regularly went to greet the referees when Torino played at home. The club paid the ladies via slush funds. His collaborator took all of the blame and Moggi was let off.
After a brief period back at Roma, he joined Juventus in 1994. He stayed 12 years and together with CEO Antonio Giraudo and Roberto Bettega formed a directors team that gave Juve five league titles, a Champions League, a Coppa Italia, an Intercontinental Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and four Italian Supercoppas.
But all of this ended with Calciopoli.
Calciopoli
Towards the end of the 2005-2006 season, a scandal rocked Italian football to the core. Known in the media as Calciopoli, it was basically wiretappings of phone conversations between high level executives in the Italian Football Federation, referees and Referee Association officials, journalists and heads of many Italian football clubs.
The tapped conservations implied a system that would favour some clubs in refereeing decisions, in exchange for career moves. No money was involved, or at least there was no proof of any money being involved.
Moggi was the central figure in the scandal. He used his power, and that of Juventus, to have “friendly” referees that could occasionally close one or two eyes in case of need. The most controversial games were a Juve-Inter of 1998, when a clear penalty on Ronaldo was ignored, de facto handing the scudetto to the Bianconeri over Inter, and the infamous disallowed Fabio Cannavaro goal in Juve-Parma of 2000 which almost cost Lazio the scudetto.
Juventus has always been accused of being helped by refs but nobody thought that there was a real system behind all of this. Moggi had constant relationships with the head of referees and often put pressure on them to get some lenient men in black for his games and/or his allies.
He was accused of sports misconduct and his career ended. The court case condemned Moggi who was given a five-year jail sentence reduced to two years and four months on appeal. The Supreme Court of Cassation acquitted him due to the statute of limitations, but ruled that Moggi was actively involved in the sporting fraud, which was intended to favour Juventus and increase his own personal benefits.
Recent activity
After Calciopoli Moggi has worked as a journalist and pundit voicing opinions on present events as well as the past. He has always claimed to be innocent.
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