Thread by @shaunjlawson

Hi @Marcotti @JamesHorncastle @acjimbo - I love your Golazzo podcasts and have been listening to a whole bunch of 'em. Gabi, just to correct you on something re: Calori and Famiglia Cristiana - that wasn't "3 or 4 years later" after his goal v Juve. It was the summer BEFOREHAND.

In other words, the summer following Milan snatching the title from a palpably superior Lazio and nobody quite understanding how. When the letter was published, suspicions circled around Udinese-Perugia, Perugia-Milan and possibly, Udinese-Milan.

The theory was that Udinese did Perugia a favour, then Perugia did Milan one too... though I've watched the highlights of all three games, and there's nothing obvious at all.

Calori sued (and won I think?) - and it probably wasn't him who wrote the letter at all.

Lorenzo Battaglia came under suspicion midway through 1999/2000: probably wildly unfairly too. That revolved around Nocerina v Castel di Sangro in Serie C - but it doesn't fit the letter author talking about helping a big club.

The other thing is: where is the line between playing half-heartedly and actually rigging a match? In 2000/1, four relegation strugglers played four leading sides on the last day and they ALL won - and had ALL been bookies' favourites too.

And James will remember Milan v Brescia at the end of 92/3. Frankly, if that wasn't at least informally fixed - a nod and a wink on the pitch, that sort of thing - I'm a banana. Ditto Milan-Reggiana a year later: a scandal in what it did to Piacenza.

But the thing is: they were ALL at it in one way or another. The lesson Piacenza seemed to draw from it when they returned to Serie A was "wait til late in the season when we're playing opponents who don't care... but don't draw. Win". So at Parma (for example), they did.

It was all very murky. Zeman saying Serie A was about politics, not football, was pretty close to the mark frankly. But it's also cultural. 'The system' was both formal and informal, it seemed to me. With Bari-Castel di Sangro at the end of 96/7 just another example of that.

Finally: I've always believed - and thought this at the time - that Collina playing on in Perugia suited Juve and Moggi perfectly. Because it meant his little game could continue - as he could always point to that game and say "see? We don't get any favours!"

There'd been such an incredible tumult after Cannavaro's disallowed goal that a Juve title would've had the most enormous asterisk. So we got a 'fairytale' (club bankrolled by criminal wins scudetto) instead... and Moggi could keep doing what he was doing, with no-one noticing.

That whole period under Moggi - mid-90s to mid-noughties - has so many question marks attached to it. Both in doping and in very dubious refereeing. Inter choked on the final day in 2002... but they were also robbed by absurd decisions in the run-in.

And the saddest thing of all is that whole period killed Serie A as the best league in the world; wrecked its credibility totally. Only now is it maybe, just maybe, starting to recover. But whatever Juve fans might say, I know what my eyes were telling me: from Juve-Inter '98 on.