Italian police raided the offices of Italian soccer champions Juventus and two players' homes on Thursday in a mushrooming probe into suspected match-fixing and other offences.
Prosecutors said they had found "at least one case so far" in which the Turin giant's former management "favoured cheating maneuvers by other clubs".
Police seized documents relating to the purchase of foreign players and searched the homes of Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Italy and Juve captain Fabio Cannavaro, saying they were suspected of taking unrecorded payments. Cannavaro rejected the accusation, declaring "I have
never signed such contracts".
The house of suspected match-fixing ring-leader Luciano Moggi, the former Juve general manager, was also searched. Moggi, who is alleged to have set up a criminal organisation with referees and soccer officials to control Italian soccer, told reporters via a lawyer: "They found nothing because there was nothing to find".
Police said they also suspected Moggi of false accounting, a count for which Juve ex-CEO Antonio Giraudo is already under investigation.
The Italian offices of the international accountancy and auditing firm Price Waterhouse were also searched. In other developments, the Italian Refereeing Association suspended the nine referees involved in the scandal and three deputy commissioners including former AC Milan star Demetrio Albertini were named to help top lawyer and former bourse oversight chief Guido Rossi start sorting out the mess.
More than 40 people and four top clubs - Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio - are under investigation in the probe, which has rocked Italian soccer and shocked the country.
There is a chance of Juve being stripped of its 2005 and 2006 titles.
