Moggi: Calciopoli was to help Milan, I even punished Maradona | OneFootball

Almost twenty years after Calciopoli, Luciano Moggi speaks out again. The former general manager of Juventus, banned for life in 2006 and a symbol of one of the most controversial chapters in Italian football, gave statements to Gazzetta dello Sport in which he reconstructs his version of the events, launching new accusations and sharing previously unheard anecdotes.

Moggi: “Calciopoli? Carraro wanted to help Milan. I didn’t kill anyone. I even punished Maradona”

Moggi claims that in 2004 the president of the FIGC, Franco Carraro, tried to influence the referee selectors in favor of the Rossoneri. “At that time, Milan and we were fighting for the title,” Moggi explains, “and Carraro told Bergamo: ‘Please, tell him not to help Juventus.’ That ‘tell him’ referred to referee Rodomonti. He didn’t want to help Inter, but Milan, in case we slipped up.”

According to Moggi, Carraro’s accounts are “nonsense,” and he adds: “Carraro says it was a political mistake, but he forgets that he admitted to trying to help certain teams avoid relegation at the expense of others.”

“I will never ask for a pardon”

The former executive insists he does not feel guilty as sports justice has portrayed him: “Ask for a pardon? And why? A pardon is for someone who’s been given a life sentence. I have paid and am still paying, but I haven’t killed anyone. People know that, which is why every time I walk into a bar or a restaurant, they ask me for a selfie.”

The years at Juventus: remembering Umberto Agnelli

Moggi also recalls the end of the Giraudo-Moggi era at Juventus: “When we had Capello sign, I told Giraudo to call Umberto Agnelli. But he was no longer there, he was gone. Then Antonio, in charge, told me: ‘For us, it’s over.’ I understood the meaning of those words two years later.”

Anecdotes: from Zola to Maradona, to Trezeguet

Moggi shared episodes that marked his career as an executive:

On Gianfranco Zola: “I brought him to Napoli as Maradona’s deputy. No one wanted to bet on him, but I saw he had technique and personality. After a goal against Lecce he said: ‘Diego’s shirt? Just like any other.’ Diego got angry.”

On Maradona: “Once he arrived late in Moscow. It wouldn’t have been right to leave him in the stands in the heat, so I put him on the bench in the snow. You don’t treat champions differently from others, or you lose credibility.”

On Trezeguet: “We allowed nightclubs only when there were no midweek cup matches. Once I found him at the entrance of Hollywood and he never set foot there again.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.