After six years, another scandal for the Italy of football. Over 80 match-fixing, Perugia relegated in two categories, penalties also for Vicenza, Udinese, Lazio, Cagliari, Palermo, Triestina, Cavese and Foggia
The 1986 Totonero begins a year earlier, thanks to a random telephone interception. The agents of the Turin mobile team are investigating a drug ring when they come across a strange conversation: two men on the phone are talking about match-fixing and corrupt players. They mention names and surnames, mention matches and results, mention dates, refer to millions that pass from one pocket to another. The investigations begin and last a few months. On Tuesday 15 April 1986, the Italian newspapers opened with the news of an investigation into the rotten world of Italian football. The investigation – as regards the criminal trial – is conducted by the Turin prosecutor Giuseppe Marabotto, while it is up to the federal prosecutor Corrado De Biase to deal with the sporting trial. Here we go again. Six years earlier – in the spring of 1980 – the Italy of football lost its innocence. The football betting scandal – with police cars at the stadium, handcuffs to football players, jail for Sunday idols – has unmasked an unspoken and hidden truth: Italian football is rigged, corrupt, dirty. Six years later, history repeats itself.