Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, the man at the centre of the Italian match-fixing scandal, has blamed former Italian president Silvio Berlusconi for his present predicament.
Moggi said he regretted ever meeting the Milan owner and claimed that Berlusconi and Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani were responsible for the tarnishing his name.
“Cursed is the day I ever met Berlusconi,” Moggi told the Quotidiano Nazionale website on Monday.
“Last September I went to see Berlusconi and he asked me to come to Milan,” admitted Moggi.
“We all know how the Milan owner is, it doesn’t take much to get him excited. And like that, he related everything to Galliani.”
The vice-president of Milan, also acts as president of the Italian Football League (FIGC),
“Two weeks after my meeting with Berlusconi, the Football Federation received the intercepted phone calls concerning me, as well as others, from the Turin prosecutors office,” added Moggi.
“Naturally, Galliani told Berlusconi to be prudent before making any decisions and not to insist on hiring me due to the enquiry.”
But Moggi, who claims he is being made a scapegoat, remained defiant about his role in the unfolding scandal.
“It wasn’t me who invented this football, the system has always been like this,” added.
“It wasn’t me who created this world of football which exists with its ruthless logic. The real power is economic, with those who manage television rights.
“If the magistrates tried to listen in to their telephone conversations, some very interesting things would come out.”
Moggi also described his conversations about the appointment of certain referees as an attempt to ensure that Juventus were not disadvantaged on the pitch.
“Like my other colleagues, I simply wanted to ensure that we did not have enemies of Juventus on the field. I just wanted to have good, impartial, serious professionals,” he said.
