Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has sensationally said that club football in the country should be banned for the next few years after it was revealed that the police are investigating what could be another match fixing scandal.
Italy were shocked by the match fixing scandal of 2006, which resulted in the relegation of a number of high-profile clubs most prominently Juventus.
It could be repeated this time around as well after it was revealed that a number of players and managers from clubs like Juventus and Lazio were involved in match fixing. Juventus won their 28th league title this season after being undefeated throughout the season.
They managed to win the title from the grasp of AC Milan in the penultimate game of the season. This was the club's first league title since 2003, although they recorded league wins in 2005 and 2006 as well. However, both of the titles were taken away from them after they were found guilty of match fixing in 2006.
They were handed a huge fine and were relegated from the Italian first division for the first time in their history. However, match fixing is something that seems to be tough to eradicate from Italian football.
As a result, Prime Minister Mario Monti has said that Italy's club football should be banned for the next few years in order to sort out the problems and also to eradicate match fixing once and for all.
“We must reflect and evaluate if it would not be useful to have a total suspension of the game for two to three years. This is not a government proposal but it is something that I, who have been for many years a football fan, feel inside me. It is particularly sad when a world such as sport, which should be an expression of high values, proves to appear a concentration of the most reprehensible aspects such as disloyalty, illegality and falseness,” said Monti.