Italian match-fixing scandal returns - 39 matches fixed

I really thought match-fixing fever was over in Italy however it is back with a vengeance. Investigators now say that they have evidence to charge 48 people in the scandal. Of those 48, eight of them are match officials. In addition, they now believe that up to 39 matches were fixed.

So far only one match official, Gianluca Paparesta, had been suspended for his role in the scandal. Now it looks like he is about to get some company.

As if this news couldn't get any worse for Italian soccer, it now looks like they can add Messina to the list of teams that benefited from match fixing. If true, that means 6 teams, or 30% of the top level, were cheating the system with over 10% of the season's games fixed (39 out of 380).

On a side note, if Messina were involved in this mess, they might want to get their money back as they were relegated prior to the Juventus point deduction.

Poland's match-fixing probe grows

The two-year probe into Poland's soccer league continues as the government has suspended the board of the national soccer federation and appointed their own. The probe has unearthed so much corruption that FIFA is considering banning all Polish teams, including their national team, from international competitions.

Perhaps the most interesting factor in all this is Poland's joint bid with Ukraine to host Euro 2012. UEFA will pick the host in April and the possibility of having your national team suspended might not be the best way to win this thing. Then again, one of the other possible hosts is Italy and they are not looking very good at the moment either (a joint Hungary and Croatia is the other option).