I AM the Football Star

Chapter 65: Chapter 28: Italian D Division Betting Scandal, Sofia’s Family Key

The thirty-fourth round of the Italian D Division has been completed.

The top three on the standings all secured victories. Bisceglie still holds a slight edge over Franca Villa with a win advantage, ranking second.

However, the original fourth place team, Palermo, faltered.

They suffered two consecutive defeats!

Among the top six in the standings, they were the only ones not to secure a win.

San Remo overtook Palermo, ranking fourth with 66 points.

Palermo is fifth with 64 points, and Catania is sixth with 63 points.

Originally seventh, Potenza slipped to eighth due to losing, and the gap with the promotion zone exceeded twelve points.

The situation in the Italian D League is becoming increasingly apparent and chaotic.

But these changes are no longer the main news of the current Italian D League.

All news must give way to the brawl at Lu Yang Stadium.

And Lu Yang... is participating in his second remote video conference.

The participants are the same as last time.

”This is roughly all the information I have gathered.” Hans started with a lengthy speech, mainly about various attitudes towards this matter.

Thanks to timely publicity guidance and with Maniero and Sotu backing up and taking the blame, most players support Lu Yang’s actions.

A professional player’s greatest enemy is injury.

And those who deliberately cause injuries are the public enemies of all professional players.

Borges, on one hand, has a history of maiming opposing players; he is a habitual offender.

On the other hand, anyone who watched this match knows, Lu Yang was dealing a blow of justice.

It just violated the rules of the field.

But you can’t expect the Italian Football Association to change the federation’s rules just because of public support. It conflicts with the essence of the legal system.

”What you did was right!” Maniero was very affirmative of Lu Yang.

”Yes, I just underestimated the explosive content in your blood, so this time the issue is a bit bigger,” Sotu was also somewhat embarrassed, ”But in the long run, this will be beneficial for you and Morici, and the team will also benefit in the future because of it.”

The reason it’s spoken of as the future is because San Remo is indeed in trouble now.

Without Lu Yang, even Sotu is a bit unconfident about the upcoming schedule.

”Perhaps we could reach out to more star players to speak up for Lu? To pressure the Italian Football Association?” Arthas spoke up, as an agent, he is adept at borrowing power.

”No,” Lu Yang spoke.

Everyone stopped discussing and looked towards Lu Yang.

”The association is, after all, the association. How can they bow down for individuals? If they really did, would the Italian Football Association still have any authority left? It would lead to many similar incidents in the future.” Lu Yang explained, ”Moreover, my actions are indeed not permitted by football rules.”

”That red card is deserved.”

All the folks in the call, being shrewd, after hearing Lu Yang’s words, had their eyes twitch and thought of the same point.

The red card was deserved by Lu Yang.

But what about suspension and fines?

Do they deserve them?

”Are you saying, to appeal upwards?” Maniero looked at Lu Yang.

Sotu shook his head, ”According to the Italian Football Association’s regulations, teams can appeal referee penalties, but the outcome of the appeal will not affect the match result. This means that even if the association acknowledges our appeal, Lu Yang’s red card and suspension cannot be recollected.”

Lu Yang smiled, ”I don’t need the association to retract. The Italian Football Association also stipulates that to minimize grievances and unjust verdicts, players can temporarily avoid additional penalties outside the field during the appeal.”

”This means that as long as we maintain the appeal, I only have to face a one-match suspension from a red card and not the additional four-match suspension! Only after the appeal concludes will the suspension start being counted.”

”Of course, the team and public opinion will need to do something during this period to maintain the appeal for about a month’s time. By the time the Italian D League concludes, even if the suspension remains, it doesn’t matter; that’s an issue for next season.”

After Lu Yang finished, everyone looked at Lu Yang differently.

Sotu: ”This... you thought of this plan early on, didn’t you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been so calm after coming off the field!”

Maniero: ”This is indeed a good plan! Sotu, you need to communicate with the team’s management quickly and have the team appeal!”

Arthas: ”I will immediately find a lawyer.”

Hans: ”I will mobilize the media to continue speaking in your favor.”

Lu Yang nodded, then looked towards Arthas: ”Mr. Arthas, if you suspect a player or referee of match-fixing, do we have any way to investigate relevant traces?”

Arthas frowned, ”Are you saying, you believe the main referee of that match...”

”Not just him, Borges is highly likely. He wasn’t playing football, especially after I scored, he seemed particularly infuriated.” Lu Yang said, ”He isn’t someone who puts team victory first, I’m quite sure, there is no football in his eyes.”

Arthas thought for a moment, ”I’ll ask friends to look into it.”

Italian football isn’t a clean slate.

Years ago, they suffered a heavy blow due to match-fixing.

Today, as the Premier League and La Liga rise and Serie A declines, these factors certainly play a part.

It’s extremely difficult to completely eradicate those issues.

Currently, Italy still has match-fixing, albeit not necessarily entrenched in the top-tier leagues. They are in places less prone to detection, organized uniformly, with locals having connections being able to access them.