Calciopoli

Calciopoli (Italian: [kalˈtʃɔːpoli]) was a sports scandal that emerged in Italy's professional association football league in 2006. It involved some of the most famous and successful football teams in Italy: Juventus, AC Milan, SS Lazio, ACF Fiorentina, Arezzo and AS Reggina. Media reporting on the scandal labeled it Calciopoli (literally "Footballville", adapting the term Tangentopoli (Bribesville) that had been used to describe the political corruption scandals in Italy in the early 1990s. The scandal was first discovered by Italian authorities during an investigation of allegations of doping by Juventus players. Transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Juventus's General Manager Luciano Moggi and various officials revealed an elaborate scheme to affect the outcome of matches by influencing referees. It involved having referees who were favourable to Juventus being assigned to their games, directly (or indirectly) pressuring referees to make decisions beneficial to Juventus, or giving penalty cards in preceding matches, which would render certain players ineligible to play against Juventus.