Juve's Moggi Bitter After Title Slips Away
PERUGIA, Italy, May 14 (Reuters)(DS) - Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi said he expected a row over refereeing decisions in Italian soccer to die down now his side had failed to win the league title. "Now that Juventus have lost the title everyone will be happy," Moggi said after his team ceded the title to Lazio by losing at 1-0 at Perugia on the last day of the season.
"With it ending like this no one will have anything to say about the championship. "Only if Juventus had won would the title have been invalid," he said sarcastically. "Congratulations. They've all got what they wanted." The hawkish Moggi has been the target of bitter criticism from Lazio fans during the past week because of his attitude to last weekend's events.
Then, Juventus beat Parma 1-0 after referee Massimo De Santis ruled out what appeared to be a perfectly valid Parma
goal seconds before the final whistle. Lazio President Sergio Cragnotti lashed out at Juventus as the favoured side in Italian soccer and Lazio fans accused Moggi, widely seen as the arch wheeler-dealer at Juve, of manipulating referees.
Moggi brushed off the allegations, claiming that Lazio were simply bad losers. "There you are. Those are my special powers," Moggi said ironically after Juve's shock defeat at Perugia. "Disloyal things have been said about me this week and that is not fair because I have always been loyal. If you're going to make certain allegations you have to have proof, not just a raised voice."
Asked if Juve's match at Perugia should have been abandoned due to a severely water-logged pitch caused by a torrential
downpour at halftime, he said: "You judge".
