Vilified as the scourge of Italian football for his alleged role in the infamous 2006 calciopoli scandal, Luciano Moggi, the former director general of Juventus, has been on a relentless mission to clear his name.

Widely regarded as the most influential club official in Italian football during his 12-year association with the Turin giants, Luciano Moggi, who has been banned for life by the Italian football federation (FIGC), insisted yesterday that new evidence shows that Juventus didn’t benefit from favourable decisions by match officials, thus contradicting the claims of the calciopoli prosecutors.

“It’s not true that Juventus had an exclusive relationship with the referee designators and referees because other recorded phone calls have revealed that these were also spoken to by officials of other clubs,” Moggi said yesterday during a question and answer session with members of the Juve Club ‘Vero Amore’ 1975 who gave the 76-year-old a warm welcome.

“The theory that Juve received preferential treatment from the referees has been discredited.

“Furthermore, it has also been concluded that the results of the matches were not altered.”

Moggi, who has appealed his conviction by the Naples court, mentioned several episodes in matches involving other clubs, especially Milan, where a number of clear-cut decisions allegedly penalised Juventus in the seasons covered by the calciopoli probe.

Fielding a question about the disciplinary process that led to Juventus being demoted to Serie B with a deduction of nine points in the summer of 2006, in addition to being stripped of the two Serie A titles won in 2004-05 and 2005-06 over their role in calciopoli, Moggi was withering in his criticism of Cesare Zaccone, the club’s lawyer.

“During the sporting process, Zaccone said that he read all the documents in one week,” Moggi told the hushed audience.

“He also declared his readiness to accept Juve’s demotion along with a points penalty.

“The truth is that after the death of ‘l’avvocato e il dottore’ (former club president Gianni Agnelli in 2003) we were left isolated.

“It was not the club’s fault but that of the persons who were at the helm at the time.

“They didn’t support our defence. At the next assembly of the Juve shareholders, I will tell Zaccone that he failed to defend the interests of Juventus.

“I resigned from my post at the time because there was no such thing as a defence case.

“Juventus were not at fault.

“This is a club to which we all wish the best and my objective always was to take Juventus to higher levels.

“We worked hard to move forward. All the honours were won in an honest manner.

“Agnelli once said: ‘I will defend my employees until the end’ but that didn’t materialise after his death.”

An eloquent speaker, Moggi spoke about a telephone conversation before a game between Inter and Juventus in 2004 where an official of another club is heard telling the referee designator to ensure that the match officials don’t do any favours to Juventus.

Moggi, who pointed an accusing finger at Franco Carraro, the former FIGC president, and Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani, said that referees who were deemed to have favoured Juventus not only weren’t rewarded but were cast aside for a week or so.

“Calciopoli was an attempt to destroy insurmountable obstacles,” Moggi said, adding that he has spent a lot of money to uncover other recorded telephone calls which were not presented as part of the evidence in the calciopoli trials.

Asked if he has missed football, Moggi replied: “I had to quit football not because I wanted but because of the inappropriate decisions of others.

“To be honest, I’m not missing it. Once I had to let go, I preferred to become a critic.

“Italian football has changed a lot in the last few years. In 2006, Juventus had five Italy internationals and four France players.

“That year, Italy won the World Cup after beating France in the final.

“Football is different nowadays. Italy are not the same team as before. Luckily, there are still players like (goalkeeper) Gianluigi Buffon) and (Giorgio) Chiellini who can lead a squad on their own.

“In 2006, Italy were unbeatable and the best players were with Juventus.

“One can only imagine how far Juventus would have gone were it not for calciopoli.”

Since their demotion to the Serie B in 2006, Juventus have not only bounced back into the top flight but went on to win the last two Serie A championships.

“Last season, Juventus were invincible in Italy. This year, it will be more difficult for them not because the quality has improved but because teams like Napoli and Fiorentina are better than in previous years.”

“I hope Inter stay where they are,” Moggi said with a wry smile.

“Inter and Roma could have a good season. Both have changed their coaches.

“Walter Mazzarri will change Inter’s playing style and I also know how Rudi Garcia (the new Roma coach) works.”

Conspiracy

Maurilio Prioreschi, Moggi’s lawyer who has written the book ‘30 sul campo... tutta l’altra verita su calciopoli’ (30 on the pitch... all the other truth about calciopoli) accused Franco Baldini (the former sporting director of Roma) and police officer Attilio Auricchio of concocting the plot to destroy Moggi.

“The public opinion (about calciopoli) has changed because now everyone knows what happened. Now our task is to tally this real truth with the judicial truth,” Prioreschi said.

Prioreschi has been taken aback by the treatment meted out to Moggi during the Naples trial.

“In the 27 to 28 years I’ve been in this profession, I’ve never come across anything like what they’ve done to Moggi at the Naples trial,” Prioreschi said.

“They just tried to massacre Moggi.”

At the start of yesterday’s event, Joe Fenech, the vice-president of the Juve Club Vero Amore who co-ordinated Moggi’s visit, welcomed the former club official.

“This is the largest Juve fan club in Europe and it will always be your home,” Fenech told Moggi.