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Italian PM Mario Monti. Getty images
Probe

Mario Monti comes up with novel idea for Italian match-fixing problem: suspend football

Italy’s prime minster was weighed in on the scandal.

ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER Mario Monti has suggested suspending football for two to three years in light of the latest corruption scandal.

Just six years on from Calciopoli, the country is now coming to terms with an elaborate match-fixing plot which yesterday resulted in police making an early-morning raid on Italy’s training base at Coverciano to search the room of left-back Domenico Criscito.

The dramatic developments in Florence have now prompted Monti to call for drastic action.

“The news these days about the state of football causes a deep sadness and it seems that a chilling scenario is now unfolding,” he told reporters today.

“In recent years we have seen so many shameful phenomena: we have recently witnessed an invisible blackmail of omerta, with the players of Genoa kneeling down in the face of who knows what kind of threats from hidden forces, and I also find it unacceptable that public money has been used, and is still being used, to settle the debts of football clubs.

“In light of such events, I am launching a proposal that is not a proposal of my government, but simply me thinking aloud: I wonder if a suspension of two or three years would not help this game.”

Zenit defender Criscito was subsequently withdrawn from Italy’s squad for Euro 2012 because of his involvement in an alleged attempt to fix a game involving former club Genoa.

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