Michel François Platini is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, and came seventh in the FIFA Player of the Century vote. In recognition of his achievements, he was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1985 and became an Officier in 1998. As the president of UEFA in 2015 he was banned from involvement in football under FIFA's organisation, over ethics violations. The ban will last until 2023.
Giacinto Facchetti was an Italian footballer who played as a left-back for Inter Milan from 1960 to 1978. He later served as Inter chairman from January 2004 until his death in 2006. He played 634 official games for the club, scoring 75 goals, and was a member of "Grande Inter" team under manager Helenio Herrera which won four Serie A titles, a Coppa Italia, two European Cups, and two Intercontinental Cups. He placed second for the Ballon d'Or in 1965.
Pierluigi Collina is an Italian former football referee. He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998 to 2003.
Gianluca Vialli was an Italian football player and manager who played as a striker. Vialli started his club career at his hometown club Cremonese in 1980, where he made 105 league appearances and scored 23 goals. His performances impressed Sampdoria, who signed him in 1984 and with whom he scored 85 league goals, won three Italian cups, Serie A and the European Cup Winners Cup.
Roberto Mancini is an Italian football manager and former player. He is the head coach of the Saudi Arabia national team.
Marcello Romeo Lippi is an Italian former professional football player and manager, who led the Italy national team to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Luciano Moggi is a former Italian association football administrator and convicted fraudster. He was a club executive for Roma, Lazio, Torino, Napoli, and Juventus, leading them to win six leagues, three Coppa Italia, five Supercoppa Italiana, one UEFA Champions League, one Intercontinental Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, and one Intertoto Cup, as well as winning one UEFA Cup with Napoli. He has since become a freelance journalist and commentator.
Calciopoli was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A and to a lesser extent Serie B. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian football bodies, as well as some referees and referee assistants, the scandal was uncovered in May 2006, when a number of telephone tappings showed relations between clubs' executives and referee organizations during the football seasons of 2004–05 and 2005–06, being accused of selecting favourable referees. This implicated league champions Juventus and several other clubs, including Fiorentina, Lazio, AC Milan, and Reggina. In July 2006, Juventus was stripped of the 2004–05 Serie A title, which was left unassigned, and was downgraded to last place in the 2005–06 Serie A, as the title was subsequently awarded to Inter Milan, and relegated to Serie B. Initially Fiorentina and Lazio were also relegated though this was later overturned on appeal, meanwhile all five clubs received points penalties for the following season. In July 2006, the Italy national football team won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, beating the France national football team 5–3 in a penalty shoot-out following a 1–1 draw at the conclusion of extra time; eight Juventus players were on the football pitch in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final, five for Italy and three for France. Many prison sentences were handed out to sporting directors and referees but all were acquitted in 2015, after almost a decade of investigation, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, except for a one-year sentence confirmed to referee Massimo De Santis.
Sergio Gonella was an Italian bank manager and association football referee. He was the first ever Italian appointed to referee the final of the FIFA World Cup which occurred when he took charge of the 1978 final between hosts Argentina and the Netherlands. He is one of only two persons to have refereed the finals of both the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup. In 2013, he was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame.
Paolo Casarin is a retired football referee from Italy. He is mostly known for supervising two matches in the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain and overseeing rules and regulations throughout Europe.
The history of Juventus F.C. covers over 120 years of association football from the club based in Turin, Italy, and established in 1897 that would eventually become the most successful team in the history of Italian football and amongst the elite football clubs of the world. Iuventūs is Latin for "youth". According to the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, an international organization recognized by FIFA, Juventus were Italy's best club of the 20th century and the second most successful European club in the same period.
Concetto Lo Bello was an Italian association football international referee. He holds the record for refereeing the most games in Serie A (328).
Franco Carraro is an Italian sport manager and politician.
Nicola Rizzoli is an Italian former football referee who refereed in the Italian Serie A from 2002 to 2017 and was a FIFA-listed referee from 2007 to 2017. He refereed the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final between Germany and Argentina on 13 July at the Estádio do Maracanã and the 2013 Champions League Final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium. Rizzoli won seven consecutive AIC Serie A Referee of the Year Awards from 2011 to 2017. On 18 February 2017, Soccer 360 included Rizzoli on its list of the top 5 referees in the 21st century.
Stefano Braschi is a retired Italian football referee. He is fluent in Italian, English and French.
Carlos Velasco Carballo is a retired Spanish professional football referee.
Daniele Orsato is an Italian football referee. Over his career, which spans three decades, Orsato has refereed a UEFA Champions League final and has received accolades from the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.
Greece have qualified for only four out of seventeen UEFA European Championships, but crowned themselves European champions in 2004. At UEFA Euro 2004 they beat hosts Portugal in the final, resulting in their first major tournament win.
The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those reviews.
Sports proceedings began soon after Calciopoli, an association football scandal, was made public in May 2006. In July 2006, the Italian Football Federation's (FIGC) Federal Court of Justice started the sports trial. Juventus was relegated to Serie B with points-deduction, while other clubs only received points deductions. Most of implicated club's presidents and executives, as well as referees, referee designators, referee assistants, and FIGC higher-ups were initially proposed to be banned for life but only Juventus CEO Antonio Giraudo and Juventus general director Luciano Moggi were confirmed to be banned for life. Two criminal trials took place in Naples, the first related to Calciopoli proper, while the second involved consultancy company GEA World, which was alleged to hold power over all transfers and Italian football players and agents; all defendants were acquitted of the stronger charges. The Naples trial resulted in Calciopoli bis, which implicated almost every Serie A club, including Inter Milan, to which it was awarded the 2006 scudetto. Moggi's legal defence attempted to present those new developments at the Naples court but they were refused because the court ruled that it was there to determinate whether Moggi's lifetime ban should be confirmed and the gravity of his actions, as was sentenced in the controversial 2006 sports trial.
