As stated in last week’s article (and previously reported in many forms of media around Europe and the whole world), there will be no World Cup for Italian referee Massimo De Santis. The latter was one of the original 23 referees (and the only Italian then) selected by FIFA at the end of March.

However after the commencement of the telephone scandal, the Italian Football Federation sent an official letter to FIFA advising the latter to withdraw De Santis’ nomination for the World Cup, as well as those of assistant referees Alessandro Griselli and Marco Ivaldi. The letter also advised FIFA to remove Paolo Bergamo and Pierluigi Pairetto (the match referee assignors in Italy last season) from any official post as they were to assign match officials at the World Cup apart from Pairetto being the vice-chairman of the UEFA’s referees committee.

In the meantime, between the initial selection of the 23 referees and the start of the scandal, FIFA had co-opted Italian referee Roberto Rosetti from its list of stand-by referees to join the final list of World Cup referees. Rosetti will now be the only Italian referee present for the Finals as no substitute for De Santis was named and as a consequence there will be 22 referees for the World Cup which starts in two weeks time.

The only country which has two referees is Mexico with Benito Archundia and Marco Rodriguez.

I guess almost everybody has heard of the scandal which has lately rocked Italian football. Maybe few know exactly who, in the refereeing environment, is actually being put under certain scrutiny, ranging from mild to intense.

According to reports the following are, or were, under observation: Paolo Bertini, Paolo Dondarini, Marco Gabriele, Domenico Messina, Gianluca Rocchi and Paolo Tagliavento as well as assistant referees Carmine Alvino, Enrico Ceniccola, Gabriele Contini, Giuseppe Foschetti, Silvio Gemignani, Alessandro Griselli, Marco Ivaldi, Claudio Puglisi, Narciso Pisacreta and Stefano Titomanlio.

These are all accused of contributing towards influencing the proceedings of the Serie A league which was ultimately won by Juventus.

This scandal could probably result in a greater one than that which occurred at the end of the 1979/1980 season when a match-fixing scandal led to Milan and Lazio to end up relegated to the Serie B.

Even the Vatican, in its newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, commented on the latest proceedings when it described the scandals as “an offense to sports and to its values. The earthquake which is turning the world of soccer upside down is an offense to the joy of childhood.”

Returning to Massimo De Santis’ ban from the World Cup, I guess it is a very difficult decision to be handed. Being a referee, I definitely would not like to be in his position where you practically lose the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity of refereeing at the highest world level. Yet, if he is in the wrong, just like any public figure, he is liable to any disciplinary procedure as any form of corruption is surely not healthy. Even in our islands, we frequently hear of allegations of corruption (even of referees) but then nobody comes out to prove the point. If I had any proof, I would not hesitate to state the facts just like I would not hesitate (and my colleagues know this well enough as I warn them) if I know of any of my partners who tries to be blatantly unbiased.

However one is always innocent until proven guilty, even if in De Santis’ case immediate drastic action was taken even if the Italian Federation had stated that the move must not be considered “prejudicial of legal judgements”.

Maybe few readers now that Massimo De Santis had more responsibility to carry than that of being a referee at the top level in Italy and Europe. This is because this 44 year old referee’s daily occupation is of a police chief constable.

De Santis, who resides in Rome, became a FIFA referee in 2000 and I think it is very interesting to point out that he had a ‘Maltese connection’ as his first international match was that between Malta and Canada.

Since then, he had two major FIFA highlights, namely being a referee in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and then being a referee in the 2005 Under 20 World Cup.

As usually happens in such scenarios, there was a lot said on De Santis in the Italian media, even by those who seem to dislike him. In an article printed on ‘La Repubblica’ it was said that even in 2000, his candidature for the FIFA international badge was opposed by certain high echelon elements in the Italian federation as peers believed that the previous five years performance of colleague referee Stefano Farina was superior.

On a more technical note and returning to the actual game on the pitch of play and the forthcoming World Cup, the 22 referees at the tournament in Germany have been instructed to come down hard on the foul play that has become the plague of modern soccer. Elbowing, reckless fouls and other violent conduct will result in a red card, disciplinary action and subsequent missed matches.