Monday 7 May 2007

De Santis, Inter and Milan

Massimo De Santis used to be a thriving international football referee. He had been selected to represent Italy at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and slightly more than one year ago he was busy preparing to establish himself an apt recipient of Pierluigi Collina’s mountainous legacy when the storm of the so-called Calciopoli, the infamous Italian football scandal, shattered his dreams.
He was barred from the approaching World Cup, and just after the end of the tournament he was banned until 2011. His career as a professional referee was completely ruined.
Monday 30th April, De Santis, a police constable, was guest of a TV program for a north Italian broadcaster, Antenna Tre Lombardia. During the program, he declared that he never talked on the phone with the former Juventus director Luciano Moggi, who was present, and the he also confessed that during his not so short career as a Serie A referee he received a lot of calls from former Inter president, the late Giacinto Facchetti, and former Milan “liaisons with referees” manager Luca Meani.
He also confessed to be an Inter supporter, and that he used to enjoy a very fine relationship with the late Facchetti, marred only from some occasional requests that “some time went also beyond the legal”.
Italian media basically skipped about this story, when they reported it they were mostly commenting about De Santis’ bad taste on talking about some already dead fellow.
Mainstream Italian media (apart a few lines http://qn.quotidiano.net/2007/05/04/9333-santis_sentito_moggi_facchetti.shtml) and English media basically ignored De Santis’ comments so far.