The Football and Society Podcast

Our thing?: Exploring the involvement of the Mafia in Italian football

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Episode notes

The influence of the mafia is widely acknowledged on the Italian island of Sicily, where the mob gained influence in the 19th century when rising demand for Sicilian products led to the growth of the agricultural sector. The involvement of these groups in local football, however, remained obscure until a court case in 2007 exposed interactions between the mafioso and employees of the Sicilian team Palermo FC.

Dr Vincenzo Scalia explored the implications of this court case in an article published in Soccer and Society in 2020, and he explains that the practices of the mafia sit awkwardly with the culture and practice of football management. The article describes the roles of two individuals with connections to the cosa nostra, a local mafia group: one of them is a lawyer employed by the club, and the other manager of Palermo’s youth team.

Both provided information as ‘supergrasses’ before the court, exposing the dynamics inside the criminal organisation and testifying to illegal activities such as securing free tickets for mob members and building contracts for the new stadium.

Palermo experienced great success as a club at the start of the millennium, reaching the round of 16 in the UEFA Cup in 2006, yet the cosa nostra has shown limited interest in taking advantage of the economic benefits of such success. It seems that, for the Mafioso, involvement in football is a political rather than economic affair, concerned more with control over the local territory.

Will the cosa nostra try to maintain its involvement in Sicilian football?
To what extent are clubs soliciting involvement from organised crime?
Are the football authorities turning a blind eye to the mafia's involvement in football?

...all this and more in the 18th episode of the Football and Society podcast.

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Follow Vincenzo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScaliaVincenzo1

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Each week, Ash, Chris and Norman explore societal issues through the lens of the beautiful game.

From the ethics of gambling sponsorship to what a stadium move means for fans, we’ll be covering it all each week with expert guests from the worlds of sports journalism and sociology.