SILVIO BERLUSCONI says it was a rigged contest that his side won. Not Italy's election: its football championship. His team, AC Milan, finished second in both the past two seasons to Juventus. But the Turin team is at the centre of a match-fixing scandal that may be the biggest even this country has seen. On May 16th, less than a month before the start of the soccer World Cup in Germany, Italy's top sporting body, the Olympic committee, put the national football federation under emergency rule. The federation's president had quit after claims that he ignored evidence of misconduct by officials, referees and players. The committee chose a 75-year-old former stockmarket regulator, Guido Rossi, in his place.

　　西尔维奥·贝鲁斯科尼说，他那一方赢的是一场被操纵的比赛。他这说的不是意大利选举，而是足球赛。他的AC米兰队在过去两个赛季都排在尤文图斯之后居于次席。但是尤文图斯（注：尤文图斯俱乐部位于意大利西北部城市都灵）目前正陷入意大利有史以来最大的一件操纵比赛的丑闻漩涡之中。（译者按："fix”在这里是“操控，操纵”的意思，"this country has seen”本义是“该国所见证的”，意译为“有史以来”。）5月16日，亦即距德国世界杯开幕不到一个月的时候，意大利最高体育组织——奥委会对国家足协实行了紧急管制。由于被指称对比赛官员、裁判以及球员的不轨表现坐视不理，足协主席已经离任，奥委会挑选了75岁的前股市调节员吉多 罗西接替他的位置。