Totti: We were robbed of two titles
Roma Captain and former World Cup winner with Italy, Francesco Totti has landed himself in hot water with the Italian Football Federation after suggesting that the refereeing decisions have denied Roma the title last season and also in 2008. Although the Roma Legend admitted that on both occasions the Champions, Inter Milan, had been very strong, he maintained that the refereeing decisions had aided the title victories.
In the last season the Champions, Inter, won the league by two points after a victory close fight with Roma, and heading into the last game of the season both teams could have lifted the title but Inter held their nerve and took the trophy home. The 2008 season was also decided by a very small margin, three points. It was Inter then too who lifted the title, one of five titles in a row in the Serie A.
It is ironic that Totti has accused Inter of influencing referees, after Inter’s coach at the time Jose Mourinho publically attacked the Italian league of conspiring against them. In one of the games last season, Mourinho famously made a handcuff gesture alleging that his team was being discriminated against, for which he was fined and banned from the touchline.
Totti also went on to say that since the match-fixing scandal of 2006 things have largely stayed the same, with clubs still influencing referees in order to get the wins they need. Totti has suggested that one of the reasons why technology is not being brought in to the game is that the transparency will make it very difficult for referees to get away with making decisions that go against the spirit of the game.
The Roma Captain remained cynical of the football authorities over taking any sort of action to deal with this issue, maintaining that no matter what arguments are presented to them, they will not fix this issue since they have a conflict of interest.
Although Totti has directly pointed the finger at the champions, Inter, it is clear that the problem lies much deeper than that. Mourinho had from the very start of his time in Italy accused the authorities of influencing the game in an unfair manner. When the Portuguese Coach left for Real Madrid, he cited this along with the Italian press as being the primary reasons for his departure.
Italian football has always been plagued with scandals related to either football violence or match-fixing and due to the involvement of the big clubs in the governing body; it has proved very difficult to stamp this stuff out from the football being played there. In the most recent match-fixing scandal, the punishments handed out to the guilty clubs appeared to be just but unfortunately once the decision was appealed, the Italian Football Federation showed more leniency than the clubs deserved, decreasing the sentences significantly and essentially ensuring that the clubs were able to get themselves back into the position they were before the sentences were handed out within the space of a year.
Totti is set to face an enquiry by the disciplinary commission for the comments he made and will most likely be asked to prove any allegations he has made. Failing that could lead to a fine and possibly stricter punishment for the Roma Captain, who appears to be very bitter about losing out in the title race to Inter twice in the space of 3 years.
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