Finally, The Observer Monthly’s Jason Burke sheds some light on what exactly it means when we say that Juventus, Milan, Lazio, and Fiorentina have been found guilty of match-fixing. Several reports have alluded to the so-called “match-fixing ring” lead by former Juventus GM Luciano Moggi, but few, if any, have gone in-depth into what exactly these clubs were found guilty of. It’s hard to summarize a 3,000 word- plus article in a few sentences, but it basically comes down to collusion among top Serie A clubs, with Moggi as the pivot, enabling them to manipulate things like referee appointments and media coverage. In fact, there are no detectable instances of money changing hands, or even out and out match fixing, per se, although several phone conversations published in the report make it sound as though Moggi were the Godfather in the Italian soccer network. He talked to TV commentators, telling them what points to fixate on, whether or not to say the ref had a good game. He used his extensive connections to “do favors” for bosses at other clubs, like appointing refs who would “do the right thing.” In Moggi’s world, it was expected that Juventus would get all the close calls. He didn’t even have to speak with match officials directly. Why? Because one of his best friends and closest allies was Pierluigi Pairetto, the man in charge of making referee appointments in Italy. As Lazio and Fiorentina claim, to be involved in this network of favor-granting, you had to be in good standing with Luciano Moggi, a guy who made some 420 calls per day. You had to play the system or you were out in the cold and on your own. And from the tone of the article, this has been going on in Serie A a lot longer than two years.