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Portugal is in the limelight because of a supposedly simple game called football.
A few days before the opening ceremony of EURO 2004, to be staged on the West side of the Iberian Peninsula, their dominating football club Porto won the highest European title at club level as Jose Mario Mourinho’s well-groomed side thrashed Didier Deschamps’ Monaco at Shalke 04 Gelsenkirken stadium in the Champions League final which was staged in midweek.
Porto’s brilliant success, having also won the UEFA Cup the previous May, should be enough to convince football critics that clubs with modest resources can still win honours.
Actually, Porto’s success means a lot more
In a corrupt world, football is hardly spared of scandals. There are far too many stories of corruption which give the game a bad name. In that sense I tend to agree with most of the contents of a recently published book entitled ‘The man who hated football’ written by Will Buckley. Fifteen long years of writing about football, has left him with a great problem. He admits that ‘he hates football, the people who play it, watch it and write about it.’ What has Porto’s win got to do with all this?
Porto’s victory must have served as a much-needed injection for the Portuguese organisers, in their efforts to restore faith in the game, especially at a very delicate period in time. The authorities spent a lot of money on infrastructure, and not solely on the building of seven new stadia and the renovation of three others. Or better airports and smoother roads leading to these centres.
Euro 2004 is a money-spinning venture
It will attract 500,000 tourists and will boost the country’s economy. It is not merely a sporting event. Portugal and its eight cities where the 31 matches will be played will reach the whole world. The image it portrays is of prime importance. The country and its football should be portrayed as cleaner than thou. At the moment they are struggling a bit!
Scandal
A month ago, Portuguese police arrested 16 referees and football executives, including the chairman of the country’s league, in a major corruption probe.
The police said officials would be questioned about allegations of match-fixing, including forgery.
Police swooped in ‘Operation Golden Whistle’ after a year-long investigation which involved about 150 officers. League Chairman Valentim Loureiro and the head of the referees’ panel Antonio Pinto de Sousa, were amongst those held in raids on 60 premises. Mr Louriero, a former chairman of the Boavista football club, is also the mayor of the northern town of Gondomar. He was arrested in Oporto and apparently still remains detained. Among the premises searched were the offices of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) in Lisbon and the premier league club Sporting Braga.
Louriero forms part of the government in power and is also president of the district commission of the Social-Democratic Party. All are being investigated about a number of scandals which involve matches, referees, false entries in various clubs’ financial books and other crimes.
Portugal could not have had a worse build-up as the country is gearing up to host the 16-nation football tournament in June!
The alleged scandal had everyone connected with the organisation of this prestigious competition, edgy about the outcome, but Porto’s European title has made them proud. It serves as an inspiration for their determined efforts to ensure that Portugal’s image is not tarnished in the run-up to EURO 2004, even though the FPF President Gilberto Madail, said that he was not surprised by the police move, following “insinuations which have been made over the years.”
Police are reported to have speeded up their investigations which also concern accounting irregularities involving players’ wages at five first division clubs, including Benfica. Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation, saying simply “I hope everything will be cleared up.”
Despite heavy criticism, he missed going to Mexico earlier on in the week to follow Porto’s success.
There are many who think that the stories have been exaggerated.
Admittedly sports coverage is completely monomaniacal. Given so much space it is inevitable that writers should need to fill it with infantile exaggeration. But not when there is a serious police inquiry involving clubs, officials, referees and players. The matter will still steal the headlines during these days prior the big kick-off.
Unfortunately such scandals in football circles seem to occur at regular intervals.
Anti-mafia police investigations
Recently Italy has again been hit by a betting scandal as anti-mafia police are currently investigating alleged links between clubs and organised crime.
The police are looking into claims that a high number of football clubs have been involved in suspected match-fixing.
The investigation, by a Naples-based anti-mafia unit, started after conversations involving five players were intercepted.
Public prosecutors said that “agreements for fixing matches led to illegal ways of gaining money. The investigations want to prove the involvement of organised crime and the mafia in the proceedings!”
It is interesting to repeat what the President of the Italian Football Federation, Franco Carraro, had to say when asked about the scandal. He said “even among millionaires, one finds cheats and thieves.”
It follows that as there are many millionaires in the football scene there are many cheats and thieves, much to the disgust of the pitiful fan. Another interesting quote comes from the President of the promotion favourites Palermo, Maurizio Zamparini who said “out of every ten footballers, five are honest, three are harmless but two are certainly corrupt.”
You do not have to be a professor of economics to conclude that this general statement means that 20 percent of all professional footballers are corrupt! But Zamparini added “this analysis counts for journalists, club presidents, university professors, professional people, in brief for every category. What I cannot understand is how these few stupid idiots get involved for crumbs, when they earn good money sometimes for producing nothing.”
When reading the replies, yours truly becomes a bit confused and diplomatically avoids getting into serious discussions on such statements. There is hardly any doubt that once serious investigations get underway the situation becomes even more spread and disgusting.
Filippo Beatrice and Giuseppe Narducci who are investigating the cases after a few interrogations got to know that the list of those involved was bigger than what originally thought, as club administrators, more players and at least one referee were directly or indirectly involved.
Bets on Chievo-Reggina and Ascoli-Piacenza were mostly on a drawn result. Betting was suspended. Lo! and behold, the two matches ended goalless! Betting on the Sicilian derby also had to be suspended in good time as the punters fancied a drawn result.
The match ended 1-1. It seems that at least 8 serie A matches were allegedly fixed! (Lecce-Siena 0-0; Chievo-Siena 1-1; Siena-Udinese 1-0; Chievo-Reggina 0-0; Modena-Sampdoria 1-0; and Cheivo-Modena 2-0). Betting receipts belonging to the players under investigation were found.
Among those interrogated one finds Stefano Bettarini of Sampdoria who is married to the popular TV girl Simona Ventura. Between them earn 12m euros a year! They have a villa in porto Cervo and luxury apartments in Viareggio and Milan. Celebrities are always better material for the media than the poor average person. Stefano ‘Il bello’ Bettarini, husband of a popular show-girl, gives him an edge on Antonio Marasco whose partner is an unknown entity, as far as tabloid headlines are concerned.
The Italian Federation has also opened a serious inquiry which is conducted by General Italo Pappa. It will be continued tomorrow and its findings could send Italian football into a turmoil. If these players, officials and referee are found guilty they will also be sanctioned by the federation, besides facing criminal proceedings.
Clubs can also be relegated.
Player’s agents and their fees
Honest football administrators are also worried about football agents who can make enormous sums of money from a handful of phone calls, and who are almost literally laughing all the way to the bank.
Only last Thursday the BBC screened a documentary on a few of Manchester United’s transfer deals. Alex Millar, the reporter behind the documentary, found out what it took for a world-class player such as Jaap Stam to move from United to another club.
It was one huge payment to the manager’s son’s agency by Lazio and, at the other end of the deal, another £750,000 to the manager’s son’s business partner, a Monaco-based agent.
During his four-month investigation, Millar came across startling evidence of general complacency towards agents’ fees and how ‘friends of friends’ pocketed millions. Man Utd admitted paying £13.43million to agents, when last Tuesday they published the internal review into their 21 transfers worth £125million between January 2001 and January 2004.
It will be wrong to assume that such dealings are the prerogative of Manchester United only. Most clubs all over the world play the same game. Most of them are bankrupt. Or are they?
No wonder Will Buckley is not singing anymore. He says that football is a childish pursuit. This is the game’s charm and its limitations, he adds.
Sadly football knows no bounds these days.
‘Operation Clean-up’ is long over due.
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