Match-fixing worries cloud Chievo v Catania result

The weekend's football was quite ugly, in parts. The FA is investigating an incident in which Wigan Athletic goalkeeper Chris Kirkland was struck by a missile during the Latics' win over Burnley. A similar incident was fortunate not to overshadow the Derby of Russia between Zenit St Petersburg and Spartak Moscow, with a lit flare missing a Spartak player by a matter of centimetres as the teams lined up for a set piece. And, as always, goal line technology and refereeing problems have dogged the weekend in England.

But in Italy, things may have taken a more sinister twist. Little did I know, I was almost implicated.

The Sunday afternoon game between AC Milan and Napoli had the bulk of my attention, and the result - a respectable draw for the Partenopei - bagged me a few quid to continue a successful weekend at the bookies. Despite my confidence in Napoli when it comes to spoiling a party, I thought it prudent to offset that bet with one which covered a Milan win. But due to short odds, I tied it up with another game. But which one to choose? I know...Chievo v Catania, home win.

Oops.

The match finished 1-1, which isn't exactly disastrous for two teams with little to play for in terms of Europe but a vague relegation threat intact. Unfortunately the result is now at the centre of a new match-fixing scandal centring on "gentlemen's agreements", the idea being that the two teams play out a mutually acceptable result without too much fuss. Bookmakers and the press are widely suggesting foul play in the aftermath of the result, and had been smelling a rat as far back as the end of last week.

As Chris Mann notes in his excellent post about this incident, it's quite rare to see a draw odds-on at the bookies. In itself that's suspicious but not escpecially incriminating. Sometimes a draw is a sound bet - I won three out of three bets on draws over the weekend - and although it's unusual to be odds-on it could hardly be assumed that the clubs, the players or the referee must be involved. So that's it then. No conspiracy, nothing to see here. Just a predictable result being predicted by the bookmakers.

Only it wasn't just predicted. Odds are of course influenced by betting patterns, and the patterns for this game stunk to high heaven. Betfair says £2million was staked on the game, with a further £217,000 being placed on 1-1 as the full time result. According to The Sun "seven firms suspended betting by last Thursday", as bookies were alerted to the worrying numbers involved. The factors are all adding up and, when combined with a dire refereeing performance on the day, demand an investigation.

Italy could do with being absolutely squeaky clean, of course. Only now is it recovering from 2006, a year in which the national team's World Cup glory was tempered irreparably by the hugely damaging Calciopoli scandal, in which AC Milan, Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and Reggina were culpable. Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi was at the centre of the scandal after it emerged that he had engaged in phone conversations with several top Italian officials with a view to influencing the appointment of referees for matches. It's all very unsavoury, I'm sure you'll agree.

To make matters worse, the original punishments were eventually whittled down and the punished clubs have now largely recovered. Juventus are back in Serie A, AC Milan and Lazio have returned entirely to normal, albeit in less glorious fashion, and Fiorentina are thriving. While Calciopoli has left a lingering stain on the Italian game, it seems to be chugging along quite nicely four years later (UEFA co-efficients notwithstanding). Much of the football world felt the original harsh punishments should have remained in force.

The reputation of Italian football around Europe is only just recovering from 2006 and any sniff of match-fixing is likely to trigger a reputational relapse. I guess all we can do is hope we're wrong about this one.