Moggi launches Galliani broadside

Luciano Moggi, the man at the centre of the alleged match-fixing allegations, says he’s been ambushed by Milan Vice-President Adriano Galliani.

In his first interview since the scandal erupted, Moggi has looked to defend himself while attacking Galliani and also now former FIGC chief Franco Carraro.

“I was ambushed,” he told the Quotidiano Nazionale newspaper. “It all started last September when I went to see [Milan owner Silvio] Berlusconi at Palazzo Grazioli. “He offered me a job at Milan. I was surprised but also honoured, I told him that I would think about it. “We were only at the start of the season and at that time I could only think about Juventus,” he continued. “But we all know what the Milan owner is like, it doesn’t take too much for him to get excited. He obviously told Galliani of the idea. “Then, two weeks after my meeting with Berlusconi, the FIGC were sent the documents from the Turin magistrates with the taped telephone conversations between myself and other figures in the Italian game. Carraro then informed Galliani, who obviously suggested to the ex-Prime Minister to be careful before he made any decisions, saying that it was perhaps best to forget about me because of the enquiry. It all began with that unfortunate meeting with Berlusconi.”

Moggi also blasted Carraro, who resigned as President of the Italian Football Federation earlier this month after being criticised for his handling of the present situation. “He knew everything,” the former Juventus director general continued. “We know where the first pieces of information came from.”

Moggi is at the centre of a probe which threatens to see his former club demoted to Serie B after a number of his telephone calls to the refereeing designators of 2004-05 led to suspicions of sporting fraud.

“I didn’t invent this type of football, the system has always worked like this,” he maintained. “The designators have received calls on a daily basis from clubs for years. And they were certainly not friendly calls because everyone always had a reason to complain about something. I, like my colleagues, just wanted to make sure that our games were refereed by serious professionals, impartial ones.”

Meanwhile, Galliani is expected to resign as President of the Italian Football League on Wednesday.