Gossip and controversy, whether good or bad for the sport, is hard to avoid and even the most honorable of us can get caught up in it. Here is a recap of the most famous scandals to shock the soccer world in recent years.

2006 Italian match-fixing
It’s more difficult to find teams who weren’t involved compared to those who were. A number of Serie A teams (Juventus, Milan, Lazio) and Serie B teams were all implicated. Never has a scandal that involved so many people in positions of power broken out.I found some more information here. The affect on the league and scope of the operation is what made this scandal such a big deal.

Sven-Goran Eriksson
The Swedish manager dealt with scandals for much of his career, but in 2004 he suffered his most humiliating and memorable. Widely known to be a ladies man, Eriksson was found to be having an affair with his secretary. Not so strange, but as it turned out, the woman was also sleeping with CEO Mark Palios at the same time.

Diego Maradona and Ephederine
He had his fair share during his career: the “Hand of God” goal, and a ban for cocaine, but this scandal occurred during the 1994 World Cup. Having been considered the best player in the world during the late 80′s, by the time the 1994 cup rolled around he was not in top form. Maradona showed up to play for Argentina and after two games it was found that he had been taking Ephedrine, a substance banned by FIFA. The scandal was the last straw for many fans and one that damaged him greatly.