A saga of soccer and scandals

Rome (Italy): Scandals continue to rock Italian soccer.

Referee assignments negotiated over the phone. Pressure on the Italy coach to pick certain players. The resignation of the head of the Italian federation and the entire board of one of Europe's elite clubs.

Paramilitary police searching the federation's offices. Italian soccer was in turmoil on Friday as the scandal rocking the country's favorite sport and its most successful team Juventus spread to other Serie A clubs, federation officials and possibly a World Cup referee and a key Italy player.

It may be the biggest scandal yet in a country where doping trials, shaky finances and betting rings have tested soccer fans' love of the game for decades.

It could even cost Italy its goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, who has been implicated in the case less than a month before the start of the World Cup in Germany.

"A terrible turmoil, it is a terrible thing," said outgoing Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who owns the AC Milan club.

"If it goes on this way, Italian soccer risks disappearing, swept away by a scandal the magnitude of which seems deeper with every passing day," read a front-page editorial in Corriere della Sera an Italian daily.

At the center of the scandal is Turin-based powerhouse Juventus and its director general Luciano Moggi, who is under investigation in Rome and Naples.

Prosecutors allege that Moggi nicknamed Lucky Luciano created a widespread system of power.

Apparently he decided which referees should officiate Juventus games, which players be selected for the national team, and even which players should be given the yellow cards.

Naples prosecutors said on Friday that investigators were looking into 20 matches from the 2004-2005 season, and that four Serie A clubs were being probed Juventus, Lazio, AC Milan and Fiorentina.

Forty-one people have been ordered to appear for questioning for suspected criminal association. Among them is Massimo De Santis, Italian referee assigned to the World Cup 2006.

The clubs could also face severe penalties, including possible relegation and being stripped of their trophies.

The scandal has already taken its toll. National soccer federation president Franco Carraro and his deputy have resigned.

Juventus' stock tumbled on the Milan stock market on Thursday, the day the team's entire board, including Moggi, resigned.

Italian media have printed extensive excerpts of phone calls between Moggi and refereeing official Pierluigi Pairetto from last season.

In the phone call the pair allegedly discussed match officials assigned for Serie A and Champions League games.

"You see how I remember you," Pairetto was quoted as telling Moggi after announcing that he had lined up a great referee for Juve's Champions League match against Ajax in Amsterdam in September 2004, which Juve won 1-0.

Allegations printed on Friday in Italian papers added a new twist to the probe.

According to the reports, Moggi pressured Italy coach Marcello Lippi, a former Juve coach to call up players who are represented by an agency created by Moggi's son.

The GEA World company, whose activities are also under investigation, represents about 200 players.

It was created years ago by Alessandro Moggi and the daughter of an Italian banker, Chiara Geronzi, among other partners.

Lippi dismissed accusations he was influenced, saying that the national team caps (selections) are in front of everybody's eyes.

The scandal weighs heavily on Italy, which is going into the June 9-July 9 World Cup as one of the favorites.

"I am sorry this is happening and I did not expect it," Lippi said.

Adding to the woes, he could lose one of Italy's key players, goalkeeper Buffon, who was alleged to have bet hundreds of thousands of euros according to Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Juventus has declined to comment and Buffon ignored reporters at Juventus' training camp Friday.

The scandal began when Turin prosecutors investigating Juventus for alleged doping violations overheard other behavior by club officials that they thought could be illicit.

It developed into a series of probes in at least four cities.

It's the latest setback for Juventus, known as the Old Lady of Italian soccer.

The team faced a doping trial for alleged violations between 1994-98 that ended with acquittal of its officials, even though prosecutors appealed to Italy's highest court.

The scandal further has deeply scarred the image of Italy’s most loved team.