No new evidence has been uncovered implicating Inter Milan in the Calciopoli scandal from 2006 which saw Juventus relegated to Serie B and club director Luciano Moggi handed a lifetime ban from holding a role in Italian football.

In recent days, Italian public broadcaster RAI 3, aired a report which has been widely reported elsewhere as having unearthed new evidence and never before heard wiretaps, concerning Inter’s alleged role under then owner Massimo Moratti, in the Calciopoli scandal from 2006.

The reports claim, that RAI has uncovered new evidence that senior Inter Milan directors and officials contacted and spoke to Serie A referee designator Paolo Bergamo during 2004-2006.

It is further suggested elsewhere that these phone calls, or wiretaps, were ignored by the police and investigators at the time of the investigation which subsequently led to Juventus club executive Luciano Moggi receiving a lifetime ban from ever holding a role in Italian football.

In the Calciopoli criminal trial proceedings, former Juventus director Luciano Moggi was convicted to 5 years and 4 months imprisonment for both sporting fraud and criminal conspiracy.

Upon appeal Moggi’s conviction was upheld but the sentence shortened to 2 years and 4 months.

After further several appeals, the verdict against Luciano Moggi was dismissed under the statute of limitations, but his conviction was not overturned and he was not exonerated.

No New Findings Concerning Inter Milan Uncovered

However, during the aforementioned criminal proceedings in 2010, one of the leading police investigators in the Calciopoli investigations, Attilio Auricchio, testified under oath, that the police were aware of phone-calls between then Inter director Giacinto Facchetti and Paolo Bergamo.

In fact, Auricchio testified that the police not only wiretapped but also transcribed these conversations but deemed them to have no importance to the ongoing criminal investigations.

“The phone call where Facchetti asks Collina about the referee grid with Bergamo was transcripted, but we thought it was not important” Auricchio testified.

During the aforementioned criminal trial, Luciano Moggi’s defence team claimed they had audio obtained and verified by an expert, which proved that Inter director Giacinto Facchetti asked Paolo Bergamo for referee Pierluigi Collina to officiate a future fixture in 2004.

The Moggi legal defence team referred to this wire-tap as “the mother of all wiretaps.”

However, when testifying under oath, and after playing a recording of the conversation to the court, the expert, Roberto Porto, unequivocally testified that it was Paolo Bergamo and not Giacinto Facchetti who mentioned Collina’s name.

Furthermore, some 4 years earlier, in August 31st 2006, Inter President Massimo Moratti confirmed that club officials spoke with referee designator Paolo Bergamo.

Speaking to Corriele della Sera, Moratti confirmed the contacts with Bergamo stating “there is nothing wrong with speaking to Bergamo. The difference is in what is being said.”

Luciano Moggi & Juventus Obsession With Calciopoli

Some 17 years have now passed since 2006 and the Calciopoli scandal that rocked Italian football to it’s core.

Since then Juventus have appealed countless times to have the 2005/2006 Serie A title that was awarded to Inter revoked, but have failed at every single instance.

Luciano Moggi, the disgraced former Juventus Director, has never stopped trying to push the narrative that either everyone was guilty, or no-one was guilty.

The legal rationale has always been, simply speaking to the Serie A referee designator was a crime in and of itself, while for the police what was said in the conversations, determined whether something illicit actually took place.

In the coming weeks, Juventus are expecting to learn the result of their appeal with regards to the Capital Gains scandal which saw them be docked 15 points this season.

Soon afterwards, Juventus should also find out the sporting verdict regarding what has been dubbed in the Italian media as the “salary maneuver” or what is collectively known as the Prisma investigation.

It is perhaps in this light that Luciano Moggi’s so called USB with “new evidence” should be understood.

Or as Italian media personality/journalist Tancredi Palmeri put it in a tweet: “Maybe many don’t know this, but Luciano Moggi has passed this USB to some 10 journalists, who all listened to it and didn’t find anything new compared to what was already known.”

The editorial board of tax-payer funded RAI Report disagreed. Perhaps their time and the time of their viewers would have been better served enjoying an Espresso. Or maybe even an Espressino.