Franco Carraro
Franco Carraro is an Italian sports manager and politician with a career spanning over five decades. During his career, Carraro came to hold a series of positions and roles within sports and finance industries, and in both private and public sectors. For decades, he was also a member of the International Olympic Committee and remains an honorary member after the approval of an age limit in 2019.
From 1966 and 1971, Carraro was associated with the Italian association football club Milan during a successful spell for the club. He began working for the Italian Football Federation and the Italian National Olympic Committee during the 1970s, serving three terms as FIGC president between 1976 and 2006 when he resigned due to the 2006 [Italian football scandal], and one term as CONI president from 1978 to 1987. During the 1990s, he was also president of the National Professionals League, better known as Lega Calcio, the governing body of Serie A and Serie B.
Carraro's political career began in the 1980s when he joined the Italian Socialist Party. From 1987 to 1991, he was Minister of Tourism and Entertainment. In 1989, he was elected mayor of Rome by the City Council of Rome, serving until 1993 with the establishment of the direct election of mayors. In the 2000s and 2010s, Carraro was associated with the political parties of Silvio Berlusconi. From 2013 to 2018, he was a member of the Senate of the Republic. Despite his later association with centre-right politics, Carraro continued to define himself as a socialist, dating back to his youth.
Carraro's legacy is complex as he left a significant mark on sports and achieved many successes and much influence through the FIGC, CONI, and IOC, presiding over the rise and fall of Italian football. On the other hand, his career was marred by a series of scandals and controversies, although most of the time he was not affected by them. His numerous roles earned him a series of nicknames and the identification with the status quo and the establishment.
Early life
Family and education
Carraro was born in Padua, in the Italian region of Veneto, at the time Kingdom of Italy during the Fascist Italy era, on 6 December 1939. His father, Luigi Carraro, was the owner of a wholesale distribution company for fabrics and clothing and was president of Milan in 1966, and Carraro himself later discontinued his family businesses. His father often took him to watch the matches of the Milan-based Inter Milan and Milan football clubs. Carraro obtained a degree in Economics and Commerce.Sports champion
In his youth, Carraro participated in student competitions in foil and skiing, and successfully practiced water skiing, winning eleven individual Italian titles, three individual European titles, and three team titles. During his career, Carraro practiced a series of sports, including fencing, skiing, waterskiing, tennis, golf, and sailing. In the 1950s, Carraro was a champion of water skiing. He was the Italian junior champion, Italian Open champion, European champion in slalom and combined, European team champion, and bronze medalist at the World Championships. At the age of 23, he was president of the .Career
From the 1960s to the 1970s
Carraro worked in many high-profile roles in the public and private sectors. He was the president of the FISCNW from 1962 to 1976. From 1967 to 1973, he was also president of the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation. This period coincided with and was followed by senior roles at Milan, succeeding his father. More specifically, Carraro served as vice-chairman from 1966 to 1967 and then as chairman of Milan from 1967 to 1971. During this period under Carraro's chairmanship, Milan saw a series of domestic, continental, and international successes, including the 1967–68 Serie A league title, the 1967–68 European Cup Winners' Cup, the 1968–69 European Cup, and the 1969 Intercontinental Cup. As of November 2024, he was still the youngest club chairman to win the European Cup, later known as the UEFA Champions League, at 29 years and 143 days.After his father's death in 1966, it was thought that Carraro would liquidate Milan, to which he later recalled: "That wasn't the case: we cut the squad around Rivera, Prati exploded, and we brought back Sormani, the first player in the world to undergo surgery for a herniated disc. We bought Cudicini by chance. We wanted Zoff from Mantua, but Italo Allodi, Inter manager, blocked us. Franco Evangelisti, Roma president, suggested Cudicini, explaining that he'd only sold him to Brescia because Oronzo Pugliese thought he was a trade unionist. Rocco agreed, on the condition that I take responsibility: 'They already criticize me for the veterans, I don't want anyone to say he's coming to Milan because he's from Trieste like me. Of the successes of Milan under him, he observed: "The credit goes to Nereo Rocco, the coach; Bruno Passalacqua, the general manager; and a team where young players blended with veterans. I asked Gino Palumbo to interview me in the Corriere della Sera to explain these things."
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Carraro started his career in the FIGC, working in its technical sector. He was president of Italy's top two football leagues from 1973 to 1976 and was president of the FIGC from 1976 to 1978. He began working with the FIGC as federal advisor from 1968 to 1972, then as vice-president from 1973 to 1976, and as president from 1976 to 1978 and from 2001 to 2006. On 19 May 1978, Carraro resigned from his FIGC roles to become president of CONI, a position he held until 1987, when he joined the Goria government. Before becoming president in 1978, he was also vice-president of CONI in 1977. As of October 2012, Carraro was still a member of CONI's Executive Committee and National Council.
From the 1980s to the 2000s
From 1982 to 2019, alongside Mario Pescante, Ottavio Cinquanta, and Manuela Di Centa, Carraro was a member of the IOC; per IOC policy, namely an age-limit fixed at 70 years old, except for members between 1966 and 1999, for whom the age limit is 80, Carraro retired in 2019 but was made an honorary member in 2020. In September 2000, he became part of the IOC's executive, a position he held until August 2004. In January 2002, he also became chairman of the Olympic Programme Commission. He was chairman of the Olympic Programme Working Group from 1998 to 2001. After acting as vice-chairman from 1983 to 1994, he became chairman of the Olympic Programme Commission in 2002. He was chairman of the Working Group of the IOC Commission 2000. He was also respectively member and vice-chairman of the IOC's Finance Commission from November 2000 to March 2004 and from 2001 to 2003. During his career at ICO, Carraro was member of many commissions, including those of Eligibility, Olympic Solidarity, and the IOC 2000 Reform Follow-Up, and he was a member of the Reform Commission. He was also a coordinator of the Working Group Composition, Structure, and Organisation of the IOC 2000 Commission.The 1986 Italian football betting scandal, referred to as Totonero or Totonero bis, created a vacancy that Carraro would accept as the FIGC special commissioner from 1986 to 1987. The presidency would follow that of the Italia 90 Committee, the executive committee of the 1990 [FIFA World Cup]. In 1994, he became president of Impregilo, which was the biggest pole of Italian construction. He was president of Lega Calcio from 21 February 1997 to 28 December 2001. He was once again elected as president of the FIGC on 28 December 2001 and remained in this position until 8 May 2006. He was also a member of the UEFA executive board from 2004 to 2009. As of 2004–2005, Carraro led the FIGC as president, with Giancarlo Abete as deputy vice-president,, Giancarlo Gentile as secretary, Antonello Valentini, Gianni Petrucci as CONI president, Sergio Pagnozzi as CONI general secretary, Carlo Tavecchio as president of the National Amateur League, and Gabriele Gravina as member of the FIGC's Federal Council.
On 14 February 2005, Carraro was re-elected as president of the FIGC after a deal with Fiorentina owners that would see his deputy Abete replacing him in two years and the appointment of then Palermo chairman Maurizio Zamparini as a counter-power to then Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani who was also president of Lega Calcio; Carraro supported the status quo and the re-election of Galliani. Although Juventus was simply one of the many clubs supporting his re-election, and it was mainly other clubs that benefited from sports justice leniency in the earlier 2000s scandals, the 2004–2005 FIGC elections became a significant part of the 2006 sports proceedings and Calciopoli criminal trials despite its contradictions, and the deal was seen as evidence that Fiorentina had joined the alleged criminal system. The elections confirmed the roles of two Milan men, and although Juventus during those years was close in sports politics with Milan, this was mainly due to TV rights and sponsors, and was not reflected on the pitch, where the Juventus–Milan rivalry was at its highest point.
Carraro began working with FIFA as a member of the Amateur Committee and the FIFA Board from 1978 to 1986. From 1980 to 1987, he was also president of the European Olympic Committees. He was president of the Organising Committees of the UEFA Euro 1980 and the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Around the same period, he was vice-president of the Association of National Olympic Committees from 1981 to 1987. In 1986, he became member of the FIFA World Cup Organising Committee, a position he held until 2009. From October 2002 to 2011, he was chairman of the FIFA Internal Audit. He was also a member of UEFA's European Union Matters Working Group from May 2003 to 2007, a Special Advisor to the UEFA Executive Committee from May 2003 to April 2004, and a member of the UEFA Executive Board from April 2004 to March 2009. From 2007 to 2009, he was vice-chairman of the UEFA Committee for National Team Competitions. Around the same timeframe, he was also chairman of the UEFA Marketing Advisory Committee and a member of the UEFA Finance Committee.
In 2009, Carraro became chairman of the Giulio Onesti Foundation. In November 2024, he said that Italian sports owed everything to Onesti, and compared him to Enrico Mattei with Agip, stating that he had "purged it of its fascist roots, understood its social value, and overturned the pyramid: now it's the base that chooses the top. Thanks to him, Italy, a few years after losing the war, hosted the Winter and Summer Games. He also described the as a "stroke of genius" for having convinced the staunch liberal Luigi Einaudi, at that time Italy's finance minister who Carraro said "wanted to keep all the proceeds for later redistribution", to leave "the bulk of the revenue to the CONI". Carraro recalled Onesti as saying to Einaudi: Would you trust the state?' Einaudi smiled: 'Okay, let's carry on like this.' And the CONI was able to finance itself."
From the 2000s to the 2020s
In December 2001, Carraro was elected for a third term as president of the FIGC. Carraro's career was affected by conflict of interest allegations and accuses as he was chairman of Mediobanca, which was owned by Capitalia and was a major investor in Serie A clubs, particularly Lazio, Parma, and Roma. Lazio and Roma respectively went on to win the 1999–00 Serie A and 2000–01 Serie A league titles to Juventus' disadvantage, and he was accused of conflict of interest as he was co-owner of Lazio and Roma through his control of Capitalia, which he dismissed. The early 2000s under his presidency saw a series of scandals, most notably Passaportopoli, gifts to referees, and capital gains and false accounting; however, most of the clubs involved only received fines, in part because the involved clubs successfully lobbied to have the rules changed, despite also being investigated by ordinary justice or having received convictions by ordinary justice.All Serie A and Serie B clubs, except for Juventus and Sampdoria, heavily benefited from the Italian Law 91/1981, Article 18B, best known as Decreto Salvacalcio and signed by the second Berlusconi government and thus seen by critics and other observers as one of Berlusconi's many ad personam laws since he was chairman and owner of Milan, which was one of the clubs to benefit the most from the law, alongside Inter, Lazio, Parma, and Roma. In relation to the failure of Parma as a result of Parmalat's bankruptcy in 2003, Carraro later recalled: "Calciopoli has little to do with that either. I was the one who introduced very strict rules for league registration in the early 2000s: you had to be in good standing with taxes, salaries, and contributions, you couldn't have any debts, and you needed a healthy debt-to-equity ratio. Registration for Napoli and Fiorentina cost money; there were cities I couldn't go to for safety reasons. Then the FIGC relaxed everything in the summer of 2007." In a July 2007 interview to the Corriere della Sera as a member of the IOC, Carraro described doping in sport as a "plague of society", and asked by whether the fight against doping could ever be won, he responded: "Never. But we have to keep doing it."
After left the Lega Serie A presidency to work for UniCredit in 2011, Carraro was thought as a possible successor in what would be his first football role since Calciopoli. He was immediately opposed by smaller Serie A clubs. From 2011 to 2012, he was a member of the Extraordinary Commission of the Italian Winter Sports Federation. In July 2011, he became the special commissioner of the FISI, a position he held until 3 March 2012. In September 2013, Carraro said: "The fight against doping will be an ongoing one; it will never be won, but it must continue. The battles against racism and violence in stadiums can be won. Illegal betting is a global cancer, and sports authorities worldwide must collaborate with the judiciary and law enforcement." He also said that foreign investment is "a positive factor; it proves that our football has international appeal. In terms of global football TV rights, the Italian league is worth little, while the Premier League, England's top division, commands great prestige. Thohir, who purchased Inter, by showcasing the team to a TV audience of 140 million people, opens a bright window onto Italian Serie A football." Carraro's nomination at the head of the ultimately withdrawn project of the Rome bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics was rejected by the Monti government. During the tenure of Tavecchio as FIGC president, a return as chairman of the FIGC's Major Risks Commission was rumoured in 2015. In October 2016, Carraro took part to CONI's celebrations for the 50 years of the school of sports. On 23 April 2021, he was re-elected president of the board of directors of the, a position he held since 22 July 2020, with Gravina stating: "We will achieve all our goals."
In November 2024, Carraro again spoke about the status of Italian football, stating: "Italy had great companies, many of which have disappeared. The football 'business,' however, still exists, despite problems, vulgar fans, racism, and unsavory infiltration. Are the clubs in debt? Yes, but how many creditors boast of having money? Football deserves more respect: it attracts major interests and audiences are growing. On a technical level, however, it's a lean period for us." He quoted Sergio Mattarella as saying "if only all sectors of the country could do as well as sports..." Of his successors as presidents of CONI, he said: "Gattai wasn't up to the task; he didn't understand CONI. But I'm also to blame: I was prejudiced against Nebiolo and favoured Arrigo. Pescante is excellent and loves the international dimension of sport: passion, however, also involves a certain amount of emotion that's better not to have. Petrucci: a great manager. Malagò: he may have flaws, but his affection for the athletes is unique." As for the next president, he said: "I don't have a name. In 2026, we will host the Milan–Cortina Winter Games and the Mediterranean Games in Taranto, which are important for the government because of the Mattei Plan. I hope that, with respect to a reform that precludes Malagò from another renewal, there will be an exemption: it risks upsetting the balance." He described the public company, which was pushed by Giancarlo Giorgetti, as the Meloni government's "operational arm", adding that "everything has changed, let's face it." As for who would succeed Thomas Bach as president of the IOC, he said that he was not sure and was too close as a friend of Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs, and feared that Bach had "a certain candidate in mind".
Politics
Italian Socialist Party
Career began his political career during the 1980s with the rise of Bettino Craxi. As a member of the PSI, Carraro was Minister of Tourism and Entertainment in the pentapartito governments led by Christian Democracy under three different prime ministers between 1987 and 1991, and he was the mayor of Rome from 18 December 1989 to 20 April 1993, after being elected by the city council. In his mayoral campaign, he was supported by actor Carlo Verdone and journalist Giuliano Ferrara.Carraro was the mayor of Rome when the Tangentopoli scandal hit Italy. Although he was not personally involved, the phrase "Ah Franco, what do you need?" became a catchphrase since the 1980s to describe the system of power and corruption of the First Italian Republic and later of Tangentopoli. The phrase was attributed to the building contractor, who reportedly repeated it every time he received a phone call from Franco Evangelisti, a sports manager and DC politician who was very close to Andreotti. Evangelisti himself stated it in an interview on La Repubblica, and Caltagirone never denied it. In a 4 December 2014 interview with Umberto Croppi on La Stampa, Amedeo La Mattina spoke of Carraro and the "Ah Franco, what do you need?" mechanism, stating that it was "already in place during the time of Mayor Carraro, when they arrested his entire council." Since he was the mayor of Rome, the phrase also became associated with Carraro.
In October 2013, Carraro stated that Craxi was "a great statesman and a man of quality; history will repay a series of clichés that continue to unjustly haunt him." Of the Mani pulite pool of magistrates and Tangentopoli, as well as an alternative history of the Italian left, he said: "In hindsight, I would say he was the victim of a cruel fate, for he paid the price precisely when history proved the Socialists right and the Communists wrong. Perhaps, if he had considered an agreement with the PCI in the period following the fall of the Berlin Wall, perhaps foreseeing that it would be led by a figure like Giorgio Napolitano, a Communist who culturally represented a reformist movement, the history of the Italian left would have been different." Of the Goria government, Carraro recalled that it included "all the leading Christian Democrats of the time: Giulio Andreotti, Antonio Gava, Carlo Donat Cattin, Amintore Fanfani, and so on. Even to someone unfamiliar with the subtleties of politics like me, it was clear that everyone was talking 'to the mother-in-law so that the daughter-in-law will understand' and was preparing Goria's succession from the very beginning. The only one who supported him was Fanfani, probably aware that he was at the end of his career; he acted as Interior Minister with great rigor and seriousness, and it was clear that his views were not exploitative." Carraro later recalled that "Andreotti remains, even today, the government man with the best operational capabilities since the post-war period" and that the fall of De Mita, whom he described as a "person of great intellectual depth and excellent practical ability", explained "what Christian Democracy was, and why its most right-wing and left-wing members never loved Silvio Berlusconi."
Centre-right coalition
In the 2000s and 2010s, Carraro was part of The People of Freedom, and then joined the refounded Forza Italia, the centre-right coalition political parties of Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy and chairman of Milan, a club that he continues to sympathize with. A member of the Senate of the Republic first elected in the 2013 Italian general election for the PdL, Carraro was not among the party list's candidates of FI for the 2018 Italian general election. Having been proclaimed senator on 4 March 2013, he was a member of The People of Freedom Group from 19 March 2013 to 22 March 2018, and was a member of the 6th Standing Committee, serving as its vice-president from 7 May 2013 to 20 January and again from 21 January 2016 to 22 March 2018, and the 14th Standing Committee, serving as a member from 21 April 2015 to 10 March 2016. In the early 2020s, Carraro remained politically close to Berlusconi, even as he defined himself as a socialist who read Indro Montanelli and saw the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 as not against socialism and communism but against Stalinism and Soviet Communism, feeling that "real socialism" had betrayed its ideals and did not in fact reflect socialism.In November 2024, asked about his politics shifting from the PSI to the PdL and FI, and whether he was left-wing or right-wing, Carraro said: "I'm a socialist. I read Indro Montanelli and was struck by the reports from Hungary invaded by the Soviets: he explained that it wasn't true that Hungarian youth were against socialism and communism; if anything, they felt betrayed in their ideals. From there, I became a socialist, although I already had that idea and rejected the superiority that the communists believed they had over others." About Rome and whether it was unmanageable, he said: "It's a complicated city, with 2,777 years of history. It didn't have, like Paris, a Georges Haussmann who gutted and rebuilt everything. And the biggest mistake was not using EUR for offices. But EUR, as we know, was a fascist invention... Finally, I consider the Roman bourgeoisie less enlightened than the Milanese one." Asked about what the country needed in relation to tourism in Italy, owing to his experience as tourism minister, Carraro said: "You need to have functioning structures and ideas. Like Milan, which became a tourist destination by taking advantage of the collapse of the lira in 1992 and by developing its fashion district: within a few hundred meters are the most beautiful shops in the world." Of Berlusconi himself, Carraro recalled: "He offered me the job of senator, and I gladly accepted. But I accepted when I was retired: in politics, being a senator means relatively little. It's not true that he wanted to buy Inter. If anything, he already had a half-baked idea about Milan: we talked when I quit, but we couldn't reach an agreement."
Business and other roles
Carraro was a member of the board of directors of the Italian Aircraft Registry from 1980 to 1987, served as vice-president of Alitalia from 1981 to 1987, was a member of the board of directors of the Independent Section for the Hotel and Tourism Business of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro from 1982 to 1987, and was a member of the board of directors of the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo from 1983 to 1987. Carraro was chairman of the construction firm Impregilio from 1994 to 1999, chairman of Banca del Mezzogiorno – MedioCredito Centrale from 2000 to 2011, and member of the board of Mediocredito from 2011 to 2013. After acting as chairman of Impregilo from 2 March 1994 to 14 December 1999, he served on the company's board of directors from December 1999 to May 2002. Under his chairmanship, Impregilo incorporated Cogefar-Impresit, Lodigiani, and Girola in June 1994, becoming the leading Italian construction company and operating in 56 countries worldwide on every continent except Oceania. He was also chairman of the Venezia Nuova Consortium from 26 May 1995 to 25 February 2000 and chairman of the National Association of Environmental Protection Companies from 19 April 1999 to 14 December 1999.Carraro was vice-chairman of Mediocredito Centrale from 22 December 1999 to 27 April 2000 and was chairman of UniCredit from 27 April 2000 to 1 August 2011, later becoming a member of the board of directors. Carraro was also chairman of Sofipa from 28 January 2000 to 28 December 2001, chairman of Mediotrade from 13 April 2000 to 2 May 2001, chairman of IPSE 2000 from 28 November 2000 to 22 February 2001 and until April 2002 was a member of the board of directors, and was chairman of Fondi Immobiliari Italiani SGR from 24 April 2001 to 3 July 2008. He was a member of the board of directors of Capitalia from July 2002 to November 2003. In September 2003, he became chairman of Smeralda Holding, the company owning Sardegna Resorts in Porto Cervo Marina, the Cantiere Porto Cervo shipyard, and Pevero Golf. That same month, he also became chairman of Shardana and Land Holding, two companies owning 2,500 hectares of land on the Costa Smeralda. On 29 July 2011, he became chairman of the Giulio Onesti Foundation. On 27 July 2011, he also became a member of the board of directors of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma foundation.
''Calciopoli''
Scandal and resignation
In 2006, it emerged that Carraro was involved in Calciopoli, which led to his resignation on 8 May 2006, as he was the president of FIGC, after the transcriptions of a series of wiretaps were made public, violating the law as they were part of an active investigation, in a climate reminiscent of a trial by media rather than a fair trial. Despite his resignation, which came after widespread pressure from political and sports circles and the media, he remained on the UEFA's executive committee and as a FIFA official. His decision to resign was met with unanimous support. Carraro denied any wrongdoing and said he resigned in the interest of football. Carraro later said that he resigned because "I made some sports policy mistakes. My presence would have weakened the institution, and so, even though no one asked me to, I resigned. However, I don't regret the calls."Earlier on 4 May 2006, Petrucci intervened as the CONI president, asking the FIGC for an expedited investigation, and Carraro, who declared himself "dismayed, sad, and angry", accepted his request and said: "We will be swift and severe." To revitalize football, many were calling for a radical overhaul of the FIGC leadership, starting with Carraro, who was criticized by the press for failing to exercise adequate oversight. Calciopoli initially involved Fiorentina, Juventus, Lazio, and Milan, although many other clubs were implicated in later years when all alleged violations were time-barred. Carraro was accused of favouring Fiorentina, Juventus, and Lazio. Critics and other commentators observed that Juventus was the only team that Carraro did not in fact favour, citing his wiretaps, and that he favoured Milan, the club of which he had been chairman and was a tifoso, as argued among others by Moggi.
In an August 2020 interview to Il Fatto Quotidiano, Carraro recalled: "In February 2006, Marcello Maddalena called me, asking to meet: he was in Rome, and we met at the anti-mafia office. The Turin Prosecutor's Office, he told me, had conducted a lengthy investigation involving Juventus: nothing criminally relevant had been found, the investigation had been closed, but the material was being handed over to the FIGC to assess whether the members' behavior had violated loyalty and sports integrity. Well, in compliance with the principle of separation of powers, I handed the documentation over to Prosecutor Palazzi that same day. It wasn't my job to examine it." In September 2025, he recalled all the sentences of the sports proceedings and ordinary justice, and reiterated: "I therefore believe it is necessary to remember that the GUP of Naples, the Court of Cassation, the Court of Auditors, the TAR of Lazio, the highest level of sports justice, have recognized my innocence, defining my behavior as 'institutionally correct'."
In several interviews, including his own memoirs in 2017, Carraro reiterated his views that Calciopoli came as a result of Paolo Bergamo and Pierluigi Pairetto finding out through Leonardo Meani that the then still active referee Pierluigi Collina was going to replace them. As a result of this, he argued that Bergamo and Pairetto allegedly asked the help of the then Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, with whom until then they had correct relations, in order to keep their roles. Most notably, Carraro claimed that the alleged irregularities began in September 2004 when he thought that it was time to change them. Among others, Moggi denied this reconstruction, calling it "a hoax". Carraro's historical reconstruction appeared self-exculpatory and as an attempt to exonerate himself and improve his image from criticism that he did not do anything about it. It was supported by Marco Bellinazzo in his 2018 book La fine del calcio but was criticized as unreliable and questioned on the grounds that the alleged irregularities began in September 2004 because that was when the telephone of prominent football figures began to be wiretapped. In fact, an earlier investigation on the combriccola romana dating back to the 2003–04 Serie A league season revealed the existence of telephone conversations similar to the ones that became the bulk of Calciopoli.
Sports proceedings
The sentence by the FIGC's Federal Appeals Commission, as the sports proceedings controversially started directly from the appeal rather than first-instance, issued him a ban of 4 years and 6 months that was later replaced by a fine of €80,000, which was controversial, as was the dismissal of all charges against him by the preliminary hearing judge. In an interview to in July 2006, Sandulli said of Carraro's position: "We listened to his phone call several times. Carraro doesn't say a team should be favoured or another team should be deceived. He says that things should be done properly and avoid mistakes because there's a hot spot. It's not like he altered the outcome of a match."Despite being acquitted of match-fixing and attempted match-fixing already in the first-instance sports proceeding, unlike all the other clubs found guilty of at least one direct Article 6 violation, Juventus was ultimately the only club to be relegated to Serie B through a sum of three Article 1 violations that would have been equivalent to an Article 6 violation. It was the appeal sentence led by Sandulli, widely seen as a man of Carraro, that saved Fiorentina and Lazio from relegation and reduced Milan's penalty points enough that the club could still controversially take part to and win the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League. Mario Serio, one of the appeal judges who was in favour of a conviction for Carraro and stronger sanctions for Milan, later stated in a July 2006 interview to La Repubblica that there was disagreement among them and that their decisions were ultimately affected by "the popular sentiment", which was widely against Juventus and for clemency for the other clubs.
Criminal trial
The main accusator and source of the allegations was Franco Baldini, who was described in the first-instance sentence as "the great prompter of the prosecution". At that time, Baldini had left Roma as sporting director and was rumoured to join Juventus to replace Moggi, with the then Juventus CEO also rumoured to be replaced by the new club management after the deaths of the Agnelli brothers. In a lengthy interview on the TV programme on Rai 3 with TV presenter and Roma supporter Serena Dandini in 2005, a year prior to the scandal, Baldini spoke about an alleged system that dominated the football world, making not-so-subtle criticisms of football figures, including Carraro. Calciopoli investigator Attilio Auricchio, at that time with the rank of major who in the past had been accused of evidence tampering related to wiretaps and became controversial in the history of Calciopoli due to the handling of the investigative team led by him, decided to invite him to collaborate in the investigation into the football world. In a telephone conversation with the then FIGC vice-president, Baldini stated: "I'm preparing a 'turnaround' in the world of football because that's what I live for now. But if you behave, perhaps I'll save you. I was careful not to mention your name; I mentioned Galliani, Carraro, Giraudo, but not you."Initially accused in the sports proceedings of being part of the alleged Cupola to steer the 2004–05 Serie A league season, his two criminal charges of sports fraud were dropped on 3 October 2008. On 18 May 2009, Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the decision due to lack of evidence. As a result, the role Carraro had in the Calciopoli trials was no longer as defendant but as witness. Carraro himself had encouraged football directors and other football figures to talk to, and discuss any issue with, the referee designators, seeing this as a way to avoid polemics and improve relations rather than make public complaints, preaching a "let's love each other" attitude. That was why the Calciopoli wiretaps ultimately involved two thirds of the then Serie A clubs, as speaking to the referee designators was not against the rules, was done in other European leagues like England and Spain, and was officially prohibited across the major European leagues only after the scandal, and Bergamo had stated from the beginning that all clubs, not just Juventus, talked to them but was ignored and not believed in 2006. During an interview on 13 December 2019, Bergamo said: "I've always been independent: I asked Carraro for a full-time contract when I accepted the role and I had a business that was going full blast, so I had total independence." Despite the scandal, having been acquitted in the sports proceedings and of all criminal charges, Carraro was made an honorary member of the FIGC.
In December 2009, Carraro criticized the decision by the Juventus management under Andrea Agnelli to display at the upcoming Juventus Stadium the 29 league titles won on the pitch, stating that the club had no right to do so, at least until the end of the Calciopoli trials. In later years, with the end result of the Calciopoli trials being the statute of limitations and that the standings had not been altered, he came to agree with the club's views that Juventus had legitimately won on the pitch the two revoked Serie A league titles, although he maintained that the club should not claim the two revoked scudetti, citing the sentences, and stated that they should be left unassigned, citing FIGC precedents. In November 2024, he recalled of his position, stating: "They acquitted me, on the grounds that 'he behaved in an institutionally correct manner.' The sports justice system didn't have the courage to do so; I had to go all the way to the TAR. In any case, in my sports life, I've chosen to hold only unpaid positions, with the exception of the presidency of the CONI." In a September 2025 interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Carraro reiterated his view that Calciopoli was born as a result of his political error for not replacing Bergamo and Pairetto, expressing his view that a referee designator should not be the same for more than 5 years. His justification for not doing so was the UEFA Euro 2004 elimination and Napoli's financial problems.
Wiretaps
In one intercepted phone call ahead of the 28 November 2004 Serie A match between Inter, which would benefit with the scudetto of the 2005–06 Serie A league title at the time of the scandal but was later charged of Article 6 warranting relegation when it was time-barred by the statute of limitations, and Juventus, the sole club to be controversially relegated to Serie B, Carraro asked Bergamo to avoid any favour for Juventus if in doubt. On the matchday, after pressures from Carraro, Bergamo told referee to favour Inter when in doubt; the match, which ended 2–2, was well refereed but saw a clear mistake favouring Inter, as also stated by two respected and non-implicated referees like Collina and Roberto Rosetti, with Collina in particularly held in high regard for his impartiality and reliability by both Carraro and the prosecution. In his deposition, Carraro testified he said those words because he was aware that any mistake, no matter if in good faith, favouring Juventus would cause controversy, whereas mistakes that disadvantaged or penalized Juventus would cause no controversy; he wanted to avoid controversy because the match came ahead of the Italian football elections.In one intercepted phone call with Bergamo, Carraro spoke to Bergamo of the failure to report the then Reggina 1914|Reggina] chairman Pasquale Foti's behavior in a match against Lazio, stating that "Foti was with for ten minutes during half-time... making a fuss about this stuff...... the referees there can't let anyone in during half-time, they have to refuse, because a club president can't go during half-time of matches there..." Carraro was also implicated in the Roma–Juventus Serie A match on 5 March 2005, which saw several mistakes to the advantage or disadvantages of both teams, including to Juventus' disadvantage that were not shown in the highlights published in some newscasts but were in fact reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport, including a penalty kick disallowed in the 25th minute, a possible red card for Olivier Dacourt, a goal unfairly disallowed for Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Landro Cufrè's punch to Alessandro Del Piero, which could have resulted in another red card.
In an intercepted phone call with Bergamo after the match, Carraro complained that Juventus received a penalty kick that was doubtful at normal speed as it was on the edge of the penalty kick area, reiterating his view that referee decisions were seen as favouring Juventus, regardless on whether it was true or not. The Carabinieri led by Auricchio saw this as further evidence in support of Moggi's criminal conspiracy to favour Juventus. Bergamo responded to Carraro that "Racalbuto was prepared to do the opposite", implying that he either told him before the match to simply be careful due to being an important match in which any mistake could lead to controversy, or explicitly told him something along the lines of "think more about who is behind" as he did for the Inter–Juventus match months earlier, and thus the argument goes that if anything, it was Carraro and Bergamo who may have committed the two sports frauds against Juventus.
In relation to the Roma–Juventus match, critics observed that Carraro's statement was to the detriment of Juventus, as he implied that the club should be penalized if a decision is doubtful, even if later proven correct, and that while in the first case the suggestion of Carraro was vague and general, in this case he had explicitily argued that a valid penalty kick should not have been awarded to Juventus only because it appeared doubtful and would have sparked controversy in the press and likely damaged Carraro's position. Instead Auricchio's investigative team considered this to be a sports fraud against Roma rather than Juventus, with further exculpatory evidence only becoming known in the appeal trial in Naples and still leading to the conviction of Racalbuto, despite the fact he suffered the longest suspension for a referee after a match, when one of the key prosecution's arguments was that the alleged co-conspirator referees were protected by the criminal conspiracy. In other intercepted phone calls, Carraro expressed concerns about Lazio and Fiorentina following real or perceived disadvantages, stating that the two clubs had to be helped in order to avoid their possible relegation to Serie B. In one intercepted phone call ahead of the Sampdoria–Fiorentina match, Carraro told Bergamo that "the important thing is that doesn't damage them", referring to Fiorentina. Similar phone calls were done in relation to Lazio.
Views
In response to the controversies about his role in Calciopoli, Carraro said: "I want to be clear here. My call for Lazio–Brescia should be read alongside another call in which I explicitly stated: 'If Brescia is stronger, let them win.' Those were days when the newspapers were talking about the damage suffered by Lazio, and I wanted to defend the Federation from suspicions... The same goes for Inter–Juve. My call was simply the gesture of a federation president who knows full well that, at that moment, he cannot allow a match in which favours are being done to Juve." He was still criticized on the grounds that "the only legitimate behavior for a federal president is to not intervene in any way" and that if he had suspicions, he should not have "called the referee but removed him and reported him". He defended the then Inter chairman Giacinto Facchetti, who had died in 2006 but was accused in the Palazzi Report of having violated Article 6, stating that "Facchetti was a good person, extraordinarily honest. And I didn't like Palazzi's report on his actions at all."In the 2010s, Carraro expressed his criticism of the scudetto awarded to Inter, especially because, as he recalled, "a month later Rossi goes to be president of Telecom for the second time, whose largest shareholder is Marco Tronchetti Provera, vice-president of Inter." He said that Moggi, who accused him of being the true head of the criminal conspiracy that culminated in Calciopoli, was a good football director despite his flaws, and that his downfall was being too pleased with appearing "ultra-powerful". He observed that the sentences said there was a criminal conspiracy but that his thoughts on Calciopoli "are much more complex". He agreed with Moggi that had the club owners Gianni and Umberto Agnelli not respectively died in 2003 and 2004, Juventus would have likely acted different in relation to the scandal and better defend the club rather than take what critics and Carraro himself claimed amounted to a plea bargain, which he said is also the reason why the club's damage claims against the FIGC for unequal treatment are inappropriate. Critics and Calciopoli defendants, having been told that Calciopoli would have fixed all football evils, that they were the rotten part of the system, and that Calciopoli represented the rebirth of a supposedly clean football, observed that Italian football continued to be affected by scandals and controversies. He responded: "Football has many problems, but I think it's wrong to exploit them. Let's talk about betting. They are the biggest threat to sport globally. Calciopoli has nothing to do with it."
Carraro maintained that Juventus was the best squad in the 2004–2006 years and had legitimately won on the pitch the two league seasons by 7 and 3 points, respectively, and not because of interferences; this is in line with both sports and ordinary justice sentences ruling there was no match-fixing and thus the 2004–05 Serie A league season was regular. At the same time, Carraro alleged that the only time Juventus had been favoured was in the 1997–98 Serie A league season due to an alleged foul by Mark Iuliano on Ronaldo worthy of a penalty kick, which was not given to Inter, and that continues to be controversial and debated; however, Carraro's claim is not supported by the ordinary justice trials, which found that "a tried-and-tested system that has been in operation since 1999/2000 between individuals who, under the guise of establishing 'friendly relationships', engaged in conduct aimed at distorting the true strength and potential of certain football teams." Additionally, Carraro himself was the highest-ranked official as president of Lega Calcio and it was the Ronaldo controversy in 1998 that resulted in the dismissal of referee designator Fabio Baldas in favour of Bergamo and Pairetto.
In December 2020, Carraro stated that the only thing he blamed himself for Calciopoli was not having replaced Bergamo and Pairetto earlier with Collina as referee designator, and reiterated that Juventus would still have won had the scandal not happened because they were the best team. He also argued that Moggi did not really have the power that his critics claimed or that Moggi himself boasted, stating that while he was pleased when they called him "Lucky Luciano" and was "happy that victories were tied partly to his ability to select players and partly to his way of influencing referees", he "never managed to make Juve win a league in an illicit manner". He added: "Is Calciopoli based on nothing? There's not a cent involved. It's just a question of power, or perhaps just talk. Juve would have won those titles anyway. They had the best players and the best coaches: Lippi and Capello. In fact, in 2006 the national team based on Juve won the World Cup." Moggi responded to Carraro, criticizing for what he said about him, stating that it was not true and that he did not wish "to hear people say 'well done': the gratification of the shareholder was enough for me", but shared his views about Calciopoli and spoke of a "Carraro redeemed".
Personal life
Marriage and private life
Carraro is married, with two children, and resides in Rome, although he is considered to be a "Milanese by adoption". In 2017, the Milan-based Rizzoli Libri published Mai dopo le ventitré. Le molte vite di un riformista, Carraro's memoirs. In November 2024, Carraro said that he refused joining Freemasonry, elaborating: "Power manifests itself when decisions influence: positions, which are another matter entirely, have nothing to do with it. Am I a man of power? I don't think so, even though I've made decisions that have had an impact. But I've never had much influence, and I consider myself a good person. No one tried to tempt me. Once I was elected senator, they suggested Freemasonry. I replied: 'Now, at 73?... He also said that his maxim was thusly: "I don't tell lies, but sometimes the truth should be left unsaid. Otherwise, you're a suicide bomber."Milan and Italy national football team
In September 2013, Carraro cited Gianni Rivera, Gigi Riva, Pelé, and Diego Maradona as the football players who emotioned him the most, stating: "I've always been fascinated by Gianni Rivera's creativity and talent. In the national team, I'm most fond of Gigi Riva, the only one who transcends the role of a player and becomes a legend. Internationally, I'd mention Pelé, a natural phenomenon, and Maradona, who messed up in life but was a genius in football."Carraro is a long-time supporter of the Milan football club, stating in March 2020: "I left the chairmanship in 1971. From then on, I've worked as a sports manager at various levels, and I've always had to be rational. I've always hidden my feelings, but it's clear that I'm a Milan supporter. And there's no doubt that since the departure of Berlusconi and Galliani, who in my opinion is the best sports manager around, the club has been going through a rough patch. However, we continue to hope that this will end and that a good period will return." Four years later, asked on whether he remained a supporter of Milan, Carraro reiterated: "They say you can change everything. But I change very little in everything: I've even been married for 49 years..."
In September 2025, Carraro said that after Milan, he was a supporter of Napoli, elaborating: "In 2004, I was dealing with two very serious problems: the unfortunate elimination from Euro 2004 and Napoli, which was in danger of disappearing, a situation that even President Ciampi was demanding an explanation for. We couldn't find anyone to sign him; it was a tragedy! Then De Laurentiis arrived, and since then, after Milan, I've been a Napoli fan." At the same time, he offered advices to Milan, stating: "Personally, I'd be very happy if Galliani returned, someone who knows everything about football and this club. Scaroni is a person of great quality, but Galliani is part of the club's history, and at Monza he proved he's top-notch. It would be an extraordinary boost of enthusiasm for the fans."
Of the possibile absence of Italy from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in what would be an unprecedented third consecutive missed FIFA World Cup qualification, Carraro said: "I don't even want to think about failing to qualify again. We'll make it. Gattuso? I remember him as a player in Italy, I often went to watch training: he's someone who was formal with the ball, not informally, but always gave 110%. The problem for me isn't so much the attachment to the shirt, but the fact that all football these days is structured around the national teams. They're always playing, and in those few days you have to create a chemistry that I can't say for what reasons it clicks or not. He was there at the 2021 European Championship, and in that case he could be called: Gianluca Vialli. About Gianluca Vialli, he said: "I have to reveal something about him: after the disastrous World Cup in Korea and Japan, Trap had a terrible start in the qualifiers for the European Championship in Portugal. Speaking with Giraudo, it came out that Vialli would be available to coach the national team. I went to meet him in Turin, but unfortunately the conditions weren't right."
Legacy
During his 50-year long career, Carraro exerted significant influence across sports, politics, and business. He is considered among "the top football managers and experts in Italy", and was called the "Grand Old Man of Italian sport", to which he responded: "Old for sure, but I don't know if I'm great..." Of his own career, he said: "I only know how to be a president: I started at 22, elected to the top of water skiing. It was my sport, I was a European champion. Sometimes they call me a manager, but while on the one hand I know how to decide a strategy, on the other I don't know how to manage. I've never done that, and I don't even get involved in the ins and outs of management." He also said that he does not consider himself a man of power, as argued by critics and other commentators, saying that while he made impactful decisions, he never had that much influence attributed to him by his critics and that he considers himself to be a good person. As a result, he said that "people questioning my honesty hurt me. It's a thought that still hurts me today, even though I've been acquitted of everything."Carraro's rise and fall at the head of the FIGC coincided with the rise and fall of the Italian football league as the top football European league between the 1980s and early 2000s, coinciding with the fourth overall and last win of Italy national football team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where numerous football players and other figures were from Juventus in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final won by Italy, as was also recognized by Carraro. Ultimately, the revolution of Calciopoli that reset the management of Juventus was followed by a counter-revolution, with Carraro's deputy Abete, Antonio Matarrese, Galliani, Della Valle, and Lotito all holding key positions of power. In October 2013, Carraro stated that "Italian football has fallen significantly in Europe in terms of attendance and club results . Italy once competed with England for the top league, but today we've fallen behind."
Nicknamed poltronissimo for the many positions held in his career, Carraro was referred to by La Stampa as "the man who always lands on his feet" due to his ability to leave scandals and controversies unscathed, and was seen as "omnipresent". Carraro was described by journalist thusly: "In the whole world, after Fidel Castro, Carraro is the person who has been in power the longest." Carraro said that the poltronissimo nickname did not bother him but that the description of Rossi did, elaborating: "That journalist who said I had more power than Fidel Castro made me laugh. Nonsense: Castro stood up to the US, survived Communism, and went down in history." During his career, he was also many times accused of conflict of interest and critics, including from the noted jurist who said that football had gotten worse under Carraro. Carraro himself later observed: "I don't agree, but I'll stop here: it's not right to talk about those who are no longer with us." In 2025, he also joked, stating: "At 85, I understand those who say, 'Is that guy still alive?
As an example of criticism, Carraro was the protagonist of Rome's ska-punk band Banda Bassotti in the 1992 song "Cararo sindaco", whose lyrics were used to criticize him for the way he handled the city of Rome as mayor and for the possession of several houses donated to what the lyrics referred to as his buoi. Years later, Carraro himself responded about the song and its criticism, stating: "I was mayor thanks to the Craxi–Andreotti–Forlani agreement, so it was logical that they would say all sorts of things about me. But I had the respect of the opposition, both right and left: in 1991, we approved the Rome Capital projects, including the Auditorium and other works later built by Rutelli for the Jubilee of 2000."