Just as Fiorentina were actively preparing for the C1 League, a news story in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera changed their fate.

In the report, titled "A miracle for 500,000 euros", Corriere della Sera revealed the inside story of the asset guarantee fraud of four teams: Roma (Serie A), Napoli, Cosenza (second division) and SPAL (third division).

According to the regulations of the Italian Football Federation, all clubs must be re-registered before the start of the new season, and one of the important tasks is to declare their financial status. In order to meet the economic situation indicators set by the Football Association, clubs with poor economic conditions need to issue a "fund guarantee document" from the relevant bank or other financial institution.

On July 22, Rome and Naples were denied registration applications due to "insolvency". Just six days later, four clubs, Roma (Serie A), Napoli, Cosenza (second division) and SPAL (third division), passed the "acceptance" of the Football Association with a certificate of asset guarantee issued by the same bank, SBC. It is doubtful that SBC Bank only has 500,000 euros in assets, while Roma owes as much as 54 million euros, and Napoli also has a deficit of 13 million euros.

The day after the news report, SBC Bank President Franco ? Yomi claims to be ignorant of the guarantee. Cynthia, former managing director of the bank? Ruya declared that her signature on the affidavit had been forged.

After the window paper was pierced, Carraro, the president of the Italian Football Federation, urgently met with Berlusconi's confidant and assistant Letta, and after consultation, there was no risk in promoting Roma and Naples, but the president of the Italian Olympic Committee, Petrozi, asked the Football Association to investigate.

The District Court of Rome then intervened in the investigation. The gendarmerie searched the headquarters of the four clubs involved in the case, including Roma, and confiscated the relevant documents for registration.

Looking at the East Window incident, Bardini, the general manager of Roma, revealed that the search for SBC Bank as a guarantee was instructed by the secretary of the review committee, Turchetti. The club was completely "misled".

Turchetti announced his resignation under pressure, but declared that there were no irregularities in his actions.

Although all three said they were innocent and tried to deceive the fans, reporters and industry insiders saw very clearly that none of the three was a good bird.

After the "fake bank guarantee incident" was poked out, the C1 and C2 teams that had stood by and watched fell into a frenzy, and everyone knew that if these four teams could not find a guarantee and could not pay off their debts, they would definitely go bankrupt, and those who were lucky enough to be insured would be beaten into C2 like Fiorentina, and if they were unlucky, they would be sent to the amateur league.

In this way, Serie A will vacate a position, Serie B will vacate two positions, and C1 will also vacate a position, which is an accident, there is no example to refer to, and there is no provision to fill this vacancy, and now for Serie B, C1 and C2 teams, it is to show their magic to see who has the opportunity to get these pieces of fat.

The first to react was relegated Atalanta who announced on their official website that the club's president, Rugjeri, had sent official letters to the Italian Football Federation, the National Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Culture and other relevant departments requesting promotion. "Atalanta denies the Football Association's list of league teams published on 30/31 July 2003 because some clubs were registered in this list using unfair means," the statement reads. Ruggieri claimed that Atalanta, as well as all the other clubs, are very concerned about the ongoing investigation into the fraud of clubs such as Roma, and that "those clubs who are responsible can only have one outcome, and that is to be removed from their respective leagues, and any other decision is not acceptable."

Piacenza, another side relegated to the second division, is convinced that the time has come to cross the threshold of Serie A: "I don't want to see these clubs have such difficulties, but it's not our fault that we're promoted to Serie A. ”

Fiorentina are not as naked as Atalanta or Piacenza and club president Della Valle said that although they are not willing to take advantage of the situation, it would be good to be promoted to the third division, "but if we do get called up to Serie B, we are ready." ”

De La Valle was indeed ready, he did not wait passively like Atalanta, nor did he attack the president of the Football Association, Carola, like Piacenza did, and make him resign and apologize.

As a successful businessman and a football consultant familiar with Italian football, De La Valle believes that this "fake bank guarantee incident" is not purely a football incident, but in fact involves a political struggle in Italian football.

Carraro, the president of the Football Federation, was a politician at heart, in fact, as a Socialist, he held positions such as Minister of the Italian Government and Mayor of Rome. His opponent is the president of the National League and the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Fini, who was behind the recent relegation dispute over Catania, and the current bank guarantee incident is likely to be set up by the National League.

Although since Carraro became president of the Football Association, the review of the club's budget has been useless and full of loopholes. However, Italian football is full of insiders, and it is no longer the original small world Cup, and the current prosperity is just a hundred-legged worm that dies but does not stiffen.

All Italian football clubs currently owe a total of €500 million in debt to the government, including tax arrears and contributions to the Social Security Fund. The results of the survey were drawn by a group of leading Italian economic analysts.

As of the end of June this year, at the end of the previous season, it included clubs in Italy's third divisions. The study focuses on "Italy's chaotic financial situation", where the amount of money owed by clubs to the state has grown "exponentially", with the clubs owing only 106 million euros to the government in 2000. Thanks to the agreement signed with the Football Association, the club is still operating, relying on the social security fund injected in installments. However, the debt of 500 million euros owed to the government is still not the whole story. All the arrears add up, and the club's debt is 3.2 billion euros

The reason for this situation is that the large number of loans obtained by the club from the bank has become a dead debt, and the intricate "triangular debt" caused by the transfer of players between clubs is not clear, and the clubs rely on "sky-high" wages to support their players, and some clubs even blatantly rely on so-called "transfers" to create false accounts.

These are not the responsibility of Carrola alone, if Carraro is allowed to step down, all kinds of inside stories will be exposed, and Italian football will not be able to clean up, so the final result is likely to be with the mud, take the team that has no impact, and then everything will continue as usual until this balloon explodes.

So de la Valle actively communicated with Carraro in private, and enlisted the support of big clubs such as Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, and Roma in trouble.

Sure enough, the development of events was completely expected by De La Valle, first the president of the Italian Olympic Committee, Gianni? Petro Truci said on the 12th that although Italian football is plagued by fake bank guarantees, the new season of the Italian football league will still start as scheduled on August 31.

Then CAPI, one of Italy's largest banks. TALLIA BANK PROMISED TO PAY UP TO 30 MILLION EUROS IN LIABILITIES FOR ROMA AND NAPLES, WHICH GOT OUT OF THE WAY. C2 team SPAL has only 500,000 euros in debt, and SBC Bank is qualified to vouch for him.

However, Cosenza's debt in Serie B reached 11 million euros, and until the deadline stipulated by the Italian Football Federation, neither found a bank to guarantee it, nor raised money to repay the debt, how to deal with them has become the most concerned thing in the entire Italian football industry, because if Cosenza is relegated to League C 2 like Fiorentina that year, there will be a vacant place in Serie B, and all 20 teams in this place will have a chance.

On the evening of August 27, the Italian Football Federation held an important meeting at the headquarters to study and deal with the Cosenza club, and the meeting was held at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

At Fiorentina's training base, the players only trained for an hour before they sat around and discussed whether Fiorentina had a chance of qualifying, while manager Cassinwa and assistant coach Daniel were already sitting in the office of club manager Gurry, also anxiously waiting.

Seeing that the meeting was still not over at six o'clock, Kasinwa said anxiously: "This matter is not without precedent, how did we downgrade, and why did we grind so hard." ”

Daniel said: "We were relegated because of the economy, now we are debt-free, the economy is good, it is time for us to go back to Serie A. ”

Gary held the phone in one hand, waved his hand to the two coaches, and said: "Don't worry, I don't know how many clubs are waiting for this place now, Mr. de la Valle is active, we have a lot of hope, but Pisa also has a chance, they were the third place in C1 last season, according to normal reason, Corson is down, they should be on top, they are also active now." ”

"Well, these idiots are so inefficient, Daniel, give me a cigarette."

Cassinwa lit a cigarette and took a big puff, the result of this meeting is very important to him, if Fiorentina is promoted to Serie B, the team he has just assembled will have to be overturned, and he has no time, there are only three days until the end of the transfer, time, now is a victory for him.

Soon the meeting had been going on for three hours, Daniel went to the stadium to announce the dissolution of the team, but no players were willing to leave, they all got the grapevine, the owner of the Zhilu Dao club, De La Valle, secretly moved, Fiorentina has a good chance of being selected in Serie B, and being able to play in Serie B is a dream for most players now.

Four hours later, the meeting was still not over, and the manager Gary saw that the players still hadn't left, so he arranged for them to eat in the dining room, and then went to the conference room together to wait for the outcome of the meeting.

At 8:45 a.m., Galli received a call from President de la Valle, and after answering the phone, Galli faced joy and lowered his voice to the players and coaches in the conference room: "It's almost."

"Ahh That's great! ”

The meeting room was filled with jubilation.

"But I'm still waiting to watch TV, and I can't be sure until it's announced." Galli made up his mind and asked everyone to wait patiently.

There was no sound in the conference room except breathing, everyone was staring at the TV, as if the final was at its worst, and every minute and second was crucial to them.

At nine o'clock, the five-hour meeting finally ended, and the president of the Football Association, Carraro, appeared on the television screen, first announcing the punishment of Cosenza and relegating him to League C2, and then announced: "It is Fiorentina who will enter Serie B instead of Cosenza, and this is the result of many discussions, and we finally chose Fiorentina to be promoted in return for their sportsmanship and outstanding contribution to Italian football." ”

The conference room suddenly turned into a sea of joy, and no one listened to the schedule and rules announced by Carraro.

Fiorentina fans, who got the news almost at the same moment, also went into a frenzy and poured into the streets to celebrate Fiorentina's skip.

Due to the financial crisis, Fiorentina declared bankruptcy in the summer of 2002 and was relegated to the second division, but under the leadership of veterans Di Livio, Chen Yu and Ricano, Fiorentina reached the third division last season, and this time due to the "Serie B case", the former giants became the biggest beneficiary, they jumped two levels in a year, and now, they are only one step away from Serie A!