Word: soccers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...brief, confetti-filled moment this summer, Italy had regained its rightful place atop the world of soccer. With stingy defense, elegant passing and icy shootout nerves - oh yes, and the little matter of French star Zinedine Zidane's timely late championship game headbutt (and ejection) - Italy's national team won its first World Cup since 1982. To a country that follows the sport of calcio more like popular religion than just a national pastime, it seemed like a sign from the gods...
...turned out, the confetti raining down and the golden trophy glowing above the head of captain Fabio Cannavaro was just a flickering interlude in what is turning out to be among the darkest periods ever for Italian soccer. The shadow had already been cast before the June-to-July victorious run in Germany, as a referee scandal consumed many of Italy's top league teams. Wire-tapped phone calls revealed that team officials orchestrated referee selection, and everyone from league bosses to politicians to television commentators had a foot in the alleged "system" of influence. The controversy eventually forced Juventus...
...from Catania, Sicily. Initial threats from the government to actually shut down the entire league until security could be guaranteed have given way to the less extreme measures, which turn out to be similar to bills approved by Parliament in the past, but subsequently not enforced. Violence at soccer games has been a weekly affair for the past decade. Fan organizations (known as Ultras) often at the center of riots against police and opposing supporters are known to intimidate team owners into giving them preferential treatment. While some politicians initially spoke of shutting down the league, a more honest, though...
...violence, though, is just the jack of spades in an Italian soccer world that increasingly looks like a house of cards. Beyond the referee scandal, there have been recent cases of match-fixing, financial improprieties and lingering questions of conflicts of interest. Following the dominance of the Italian league in the 1980s and 1990s, there are even signs that the off-field shenanigans are affecting performance. In the past decade, only one Italian club has claimed a Champions League title (AC Milan in 2003), following a 12-year period that included five titles in the top European competition. And elite...
...figures have played central roles in the sport, including the Agnelli family that owns automaker Fiat and Juventus, and billionaire former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who owns AC Milan. Smaller teams are often owned by top local business figures, who usually lose money to satisfy their sporting passion. But soccer's reach extends across the entire spectrum of Italian life. Following the initial outrage of the officer's death, La Repubblica columnist Giuseppe D'Avanzo put it this way: "If you don't want to break the toy that creates an appetizing consensus for many (in politics, business, media...