Conte and the “he couldn’t not have known”
And again: the ten month disqualification imposed on Antonio Conte, in 2012, for the betting case? No proof, but the winning formula of “he couldn’t help but know”. According to the FIGC Disciplinary Commission, in fact, «it is truly unlikely that Conte was unaware, also due to his centralizing nature. Hypothesizing that staff members or the team made decisions without his knowledge is not objectively credible». Even in that case, perhaps, a bit of mandatory guarantees would have been needed.
Marconi-Santini: the sentences
And then, precisely, there are the previous cases of racism, in which the principles of jurisprudence have also gone beyond the presence of witnesses. Year of Grace 2020: Michele Marconia forward at the time Pisais disqualified for ten days, on the basis of article 28 of the FIGC Sports Justice Code, following a verbal duel with Joel Obi of the Chievo. «Developing a logical reasoning, it seems likely that there is no other plausible reason suitable to justify the players’ reaction other than that of having heard a certainly serious and offensive sentence – we read in the sentence of the Federal Court of Appeal, which had established the sentence –. Furthermore, absolute certainty of the commission of the offense is not necessary, nor is it necessary to overcome reasonable doubt, but a lower degree of certainty is sufficient.». Here, exactly. Year of grace 2021, again: Claudio Santini, Padova striker, runs into a similar stoppage after a dispute with Shaka Mawuli of Sambenedettese. «The disputed fact can be considered proven even if the evidentiary framework is formed only by the declarations of the offended person – even explains the mechanism of the National Federal Court in that circumstance –, provided that its reliability is subjected to positive scrutiny». Three years later, however, the regulatory rigor of articles 65, 66 and 68 of the Code, which regulate the work of the sports judge, has prevailed.
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