Inter Milan players applaud fans after the match. Photo: REUTERS
LONDON:
Serie A leaders Inter Milan could be crowned champions of Italy this weekend when they take on Parma at the San Siro, as a brewing referee scandal threatens the integrity of Italy’s top flight.
Holding a 10-point lead over Napoli, who are at Champions League chasers Como on Saturday evening, Inter need just one win in their final four matches to secure a 21st league title and third in six seasons.
But when Inter fans take to their seats on Sunday evening, their Scudetto celebrations might already be underway, if Napoli lose to Como and AC Milan — 12 points back in third — fail to win at Sassuolo on Sunday afternoon.
Parma have nothing to play for and should be easy meat for Inter, but the same could have been said last weekend when the league leaders threw away a two-goal lead to draw at mid-table Torino.
In reality, both Napoli and Milan’s remaining realistic target is sealing qualification to the Champions League.
Napoli would do just that if they beat Como and Roma then failed to win against Fiorentina on Monday night.
Napoli are eight points ahead of both fifth-placed Como and Roma, who sit sixth, with that pair trying to sneak into the top four in the final weeks of the campaign.
Como and Roma are three points behind Juventus, who sit in the fourth and final Champions League qualification spot, with Milan a further three points ahead.
Calcio in crisis
But overshadowing the on-pitch action is a scandal in which the head of referees for Serie A and Serie B is being investigated by prosecutors in Milan for the crime of “sporting fraud”.
Gianluca Rocchi suspended himself on Sunday after the news broke that he, VAR chief Andrea Gervasoni and two others were suspected of the same offence, which carries a maximum prison sentence of six years.
The 52-year-old Rocchi will not speak to prosecutors at a hearing on Thursday, but Gervasoni will be questioned over accusations that the selection of referees has, in some instances, been piloted and that VAR officials have received outside communication from both him and Rocchi on what decisions to make.
Another official, Daniele Paterna, is accused of giving false testimony on an incident in which Rocchi is suspected of banging on the door of the VAR room to get him to change his ruling on a handball offence during Udinese’s 1-0 win over Parma in March last year.
Rocchi is also suspected of having decided on the selection of Andrea Colombo as the referee for Inter Milan’s 1-0 defeat at Bologna in April last year as he was “liked by Inter”.
Gervasoni, according to a report from daily La Repubblica, is suspected of having instructed a VAR official to make sure that a penalty was not given to Inter for a foul on Yann Bisseck during their 1-0 home defeat to Roma, which was also played last April.
Napoli ended up winning the league title by a single point ahead of Inter.
Five matches are under suspicion, none from the current season, and all five people officially under investigation are match officials, with no one from any football club as yet in prosecutors’ sights.
But a drawn-out scandal is the last thing Italian football needs after the national team’s catastrophic failure to reach the World Cup for the third time in succession, with the country’s football federation not set to elect a new president until late June.
