What's the connection between gangs and Italian football?

Diego maradona, the former Argentine football king, died of illness, which became the saddest news in football this year. Looking back on Ma Lao's life, he spent the golden years of his football career in Naples, a Serie A team, and he led this team, which is only a member of the middle and lower reaches of Serie A, to become the Serie A champion by himself, so Ma Lao occupies a godlike position in Naples. However, Naples was also the time when the king of the ball fell. Drug abuse and promiscuity became many people's impressions of his off-court life at that time. In addition, some people say that Naples, with limited financial resources at that time, was able to sign this favored son of heaven, relying entirely on the funds of gang drug lords; In fact, Serie A has been criticized because many southern teams are closely related to the mafia, and there have been many scandals related to it in recent years.

As we all know, the most famous one in Italy is the Mafia, which has never solved the security problem in this southern European country. Mafia is an organized criminal group, which originated in Sicily, Italy in the middle of19th century. With the immigration tide from Sicily and South Italy at the end of 19, the influence of mafia also extended to the east coast of the United States and Australia. The Italian mafia takes the family as the unit, mainly represented by Sicily. The following organizations have great influence in Italy:

Camorra,/kloc-A gang that originated in southern Italy in the 0/7th century, based in Naples, the largest city in southern Campania, is mainly engaged in illegal things such as drug dealing and extortion. The number of murders involved also makes Campania the city with the highest murder rate in southern Italy.

Mafia (Sicily), a criminal organization founded in the middle of19th century, originally originated in Sicily, Italy. Later, with the tide of immigrants from Italy, the mafia's power extended to the east coast of the United States and other places, but the biggest influence was still in Italy. In addition to engaging in illegal activities such as drug dealing, extortion and pornography, it is more common to collude with political and business people to assassinate police, prosecutors and judges. There are more than 6,200 mafia in the world, which is the most feared criminal organization in the world.

The gang founded by the Glorious Society (Ndrangheta, Calabria) from the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century originated in Calabria, southern Italy. Now, besides Italy, the gang is more active in Spain, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, North Africa and even South America. Like the mafia, the Glorious Society is mainly engaged in illegal activities such as drug dealing, extortion, pornography and arms smuggling. It is estimated that by 20 14, the average annual income of Glory Club will be higher than that of multinational companies such as Deutsche Bank and internationally renowned brand McDonald's.

Italian football has always been influenced by domestic gangs. When Naples dominated Serie A in the late 1980s, diego maradona became very close to Camorra, the leading organization of Naples, and even provided cocaine and women to the football king for a long time, which made diego maradona get into the habit of taking drugs. Results In 199 1, he was found to have taken cocaine and was suspended for 5 months1.

In addition to the "old horse", many scandals in Serie A are related to gangs for many years. In 2006, the "telephone door" of Serie A was forged, which was related to the participation of gangs.

Salvato Le Sirigu, the Italian national goalkeeper currently playing for Turin in Serie A, is said to be a member of the mafia.

Berlusconi, the former chairman of AC Milan, has been accused of having extensive relations with the mafia for many times, and most of his bodyguards are members of the mafia.

Sicilian teams such as Palermo and Messina are of course closely related to the mafia, among which former Palermo President Sen Beligni, who often changes coaches, has always been said to be a member of the Sicilian mafia.

Giorgio chinaglia, the former president of Lazio, was investigated for allegedly buying shares in the home team by intimidation, and even was suspected by the authorities of money laundering for the mafia.

Former legendary Lazio striker giuseppe signori and former Atalanta midfielder cristiano doni, who played for their country in the 2002 World Cup, were also arrested in the case of 20 1 1 for allegedly manipulating the results of domestic low-level leagues, and were banned from participating in Italian football-related activities for five years and three and a half years respectively.

Two years ago, Vincenzo Iaquinta, the hero of the 2006 World Cup champion who played for Juventus, and his father were accused of working for the Mafia, and were suspected of possessing weapons, extortion, making false accounts and usury. His father was even expelled from the Glorious Society. Although the former Italian striker finally appealed to overturn the sentence of two years in prison, his father was sentenced to decades in prison.

In fact, the above is just the tip of the iceberg of the close relationship between Italian football and gangster organizations. Manipulation of results, fraud, money laundering and even organizing radical fans to attack opponents and even referees are not uncommon, which is one of the main reasons for the changes in Italian football in the past decade.