Franco Carraro slightly walks back his Calciopoli comments, but says “it was a mistake” to award Inter the 2006 Scudetto.
Carraro was head of the FIGC when the Calciopoli scandal broke, with Guido Rossi taking over as extraordinary commissioner after his resignation.
The scandal saw Juventus found guilty of influencing the designation of referees, with Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio also found guilty of transgressions.
Juve were relegated to Serie B and stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Scudetti, with the latter being awarded to the Nerazzurri.
Franco Carraro slightly walks back his Calciopoli comments, but says “it was a mistake” to award Inter the 2006 Scudetto.
Carraro was head of the FIGC when the Calciopoli scandal broke, with Guido Rossi taking over as extraordinary commissioner after his resignation.
The scandal saw Juventus found guilty of influencing the designation of referees, with Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio also found guilty of transgressions.
Juve were relegated to Serie B and stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Scudetti, with the latter being awarded to the Nerazzurri.
That proved a controversial decision, and the Bianconeri continue to count those titles in their history books, claiming to have won 35 Scudetti, rather than the official total of 33.
Carraro claimed yesterday that “Juve would have won anyway”, but he struck a slightly more nuanced tone when speaking to La Repubblica today.
“Guido Rossi deserves a great deal of credit, and he handled Calciopoli well,” the former FIGC head said.
“It was quick and timely, it allowed the league to start on time and the Italian sides to enter the European cups.
“He was a surgeon on the battlefield. He had to operate urgently, he took some things away – perhaps too much – but he got a body that everyone thought was dying back on its feet.
“I think it was an error though to assign the 2006 Scudetto to Inter. It was a very heavy choice, because a month afterward Rossi went to be Telecom Italia [the company which recorded the wiretaps] President for the second time, whose major shareholder was Marco Tronchetti Provera, the Inter vice-President.
“I don’t think Rossi acted in bad faith, it’s just how it looked.
Carraro was involved in the Calciopoli scandal as he was recorded seemingly influencing which referee would be assigned to Chievo-Lazio.
The President was heard telling referee designator Paolo Bergamo to “give Lazio a hand”, and was also accused of influencing the designation of the referee for Roma-Juventus in April 2005.
The initial sporting trial banned Carraro for four years and six months, but this was later reduced to an €80,000 fine.
In May 2009 he was acquitted of sporting fraud by the criminal courts.