Former Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli responded to Massimo Moratti’s recent comments on the Calciopoli scandal, calling Inter equally guilty.
The former Nerazzurri president spoke to Corriere della Sera last week, where he claimed that the Serie A was manipulated against the club in favour of the Bianconeri or Milan. It was later revealed in 2011 that Moratti has also contacted referee designators and managed to escape punishment.
Speaking to Telenord, Cobolli Gigli first reacted to Moratti’s statements to Corriere della Sera.
“I read a recent interview with Moratti. Everything was talked about, but one question was missing: ‘How come in 2006 Inter did not appear in the Calciopoli trial, while 4 or 5 years later the document on the Nerazzurri appeared, for which the prosecutor Palazzi spoke of serious sports offence?’
“Everyone has forgotten this matter, if Inter had been in the sports trial with Juventus, and had been accused, as happened only years later, of ‘serious sporting offence’, it would have been a different story.”
He expressed confusion over the surfacing of the document implicating Inter.
“Someone hid the file, someone powerful why to hide something like that…. I didn’t understand, however, why after five years they made it reappear.
“Perhaps to give Juventus a further moral slap in the face, as if to say: ‘When I wanted to hide something, I made it disappear. When everything was prescribed, here it is’.”
Finally, Cobolli Gigli reaffirmed his belief that the re-awarded Scudetti should not have gone to the Nerazzurri.
“They should not have been assigned to anyone. At least there would have been two guilty parties, instead in Calciopoli there was only one sinner.”
Following the Calciopoli scandal in 2006, Juventus were stripped of two league titles and relegated to Serie B. Other clubs involved in the original trial, like Milan and Fiorentina, were given less severe punishments, like points deductions or playing matches behind closed doors.