Chapter 7

The chapter How Soccer Explains The New Oligarchs mainly focuses on the referees of Italy, and how much attention they receive. In America refs get the short end of the stick in my opinion. they are looked at as the ones who can ruin a a game for someone just because of one call. In this chapter they reveal the secrets behind the mysterious relationship between referees and the two most powerful soccer clubs in Italy, Juventus of Turin and AC Milan. The owner of AC Milan was ,Silvio Berlusconi, and he was not afraid to show off how much power and money he had. The owners of the Juventus of Turin was the Agnelli family, and even though they were just as powerful and maybe even more. Referees are a key element throughout any sport played. They contain the responsibility of having the authority to ensure players from both sides of the game play accordingly to the rules from a neutral point of view. In Italy, they are seen as very respected sport celebrities, because every little action they disburse onto the field reflects the position of the team. These refs have to make the choice on wether they are going to ref fairly, or if they are going to ref for money. Most of the time these ref are going to ref for the money. These owners are willing to do anything for a win. It is easy to make it a little easy on your players and just pay the ref so, that is what is done. This proving that for the right amount of money people are willing to do anything.