ABSTRACT
This chapter will introduce the topic of the book, starting firstly from an analysis of the sport-corruption nexus; secondly, it will focus on corruption in Italian soccer by highlighting, especially in the Italian case, the role played by mafia clans. The chapter will also point out the lack of sociological analyses, grounded on primary data, on the topic ‘soccer mafias’.
Mafia power and corruption meet precisely when and where crime syndicates seek to exploit power or become powerful through corrupt practices. Organised crime groups which seek to maintain power at social, political and economic levels are considered mafia groups (Dalla Chiesa, 2010). For this reason, soccer, which is both a practice for social cohesion and a profitable business, is not immune from the attention of mafia clans, at both local and national levels, as the book will show in its analysis.
Controlling or influencing soccer can result in financial, social and political power. In this sense, Italian soccer offers the perfect example of a societal domain where power is vulnerable to wealthy or well-connected criminals, corrupt(ible) entrepreneurs and/or politicians.
