Fiorentina owner Diego della Valle told magistrates Monday that his club is the "victim" of the corrupt soccer system they are uncovering and not a part of it.
Della Valle is one of around 40 people under investigation here for allegedly forming a "criminal organization" that rigged games in the 2004-2005 Serie A season. Nine referees, former Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) Chief Franco Carraro and Lazio Chairman Claudio Lotito are among those being probed, as well as former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, the alleged ringleader.
"We are here to clarify Fiorentina's position," said Della Valle's lawyer, Francesco Picca, before the meeting with prosecutors.
"It should be clear that we are victims of the system, not accomplices".
Wiretaps leaked to the press seem to suggest Della Valle tried to get FIGC to assign friendly officials to Fiorentina, which was in danger of relegation at the end of the 2004-05 season. Della Valle has appeared on several television shows claiming that all he wanted to do was make sure Fiorentina had a level playing-field.
He argued this was necessary because the club had actually been on the rough end of the "Moggi system" up to then.
Fiorentina, Lazio, Milan and Juve are involved in the match-rigging side of the scandal that has shocked the nation.
But prosecutors in four cities are looking at different elements of the alleged corruption, ranging from illegal betting to false accounting, doping and transfer fraud. Most Serie A clubs are suspected of some involvement.
At the weekend FIGC's new prosecutor Francesco Borrelli - the man who led the early '90s Clean Hands-Bribesville probes that toppled Italy's political establishment - said the sporting side of the investigation will be wrapped up in three weeks.
The sporting disciplinary process has to be concluded quickly because UEFA makes the draw for next season's European club competitions at the end of July. Juventus risk being dumped from Serie A and the European Champions League and stripped of the 2005 and 2006 crowns.
Fiorentina and Lazio, which finished fourth and sixth in Serie A, may be relegated too and lose their respective places in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. Milan are not so deeply implicated in the scandal and will probably face a league-points penalty at most.
"We'll try to do our investigation in the best possible way," Borrelli said Monday. "It'll be tough, but we have broad shoulders".
On Monday Lazio won an appeal against a UEFA decision to withhold their licence to take part in European competition next season. The licence had been withdrawn because a former Lazio official claimed the Rome club owed him money. Lazio have paid up since.
