As told in Conte’s book “Testa, Cuore e Gambe”, co written with Antonio Di Rosa published by Rizzoli.
The joy of winning the first scudetto as Juve coach is short lived due to the match fixing scandal. Conte handles his defense the same he handled playing and coaching, as a protagonist and with grinta. Conte reluctantly accepts a plea deal and has to look Juve’s games away from the bench.
After winning the scudetto in Trieste, Conte realizes he desperately needs to rest to recharge his batteries. His soon to be wife Elisabetta organizes a weekend for the two of them in a fancy spa outside of Turin. Conte shuts off his cellphone and finally gets some real rest for 2 days. As he is getting ready to return to Turin on May 28th, he sees an incredible amount of text messages on his cell phone. At first he assumes these are from people contacting him to congratulate him for scudetto, but after checking one of them he realizes a long nightmare is about to begin (it would last 7 months). While Conte was at the spa, his house was searched and his Ipad, PC and older cell phone SIM cards were confiscated. He finally reaches his lawyer who informs him he has been accused of fixing two matches Novara-Siena and Albinoleffe-Siena from the 2010/11 season (interestingly Conte did not mention anything about them in the chapter about his time as Siena coach).
While Conte is devastated, he takes great comfort in fact both Marotta and Andrea Agnelli are firmly standing by him (the strong bond he has with these two men is very evident through out the book, so I doubt the fact there is a supposed strong difference of opinion on how Juve should be run between them). The name of the player who accused Conte of fixing the matches is never revealed in the chapter, but it’s obvious Conte finds the accusations absurd- especially when the player accuses Conte of telling the Siena players specifically that they were supposed to draw the match against Novara.
Conte is concerned since he has to deal with both the Italian penal system and the sporting justice, which Conte describes as very archaic and unfair. The biggest problem with the sporting justice is that the burden of proof is on the accused. Conte points out how difficult it is to prove that what someone else said about you is a lie. To add insult to injury, Conte starts reading in the Italian papers the names of his potential replacements as Juve coach (he doesn’t mention them in the book but I do remember Prandelli being one of them).
Conte decides to handle his defense, the same way he has handled coaching Juve- as a protagonist. He keeps asking his lawyers “What else can we do?” and vows to attend all the court hearings. Since the accuser claimed Conte told the Siena players they were supposed to draw the match against Novara, the defense team decides the best thing to do is to get the testimony of the other 20 players who were in the locker room that day. Most of them actually say Conte gave them an emotional speech to motivate them to win the match.
Prior to the first court hearing on July 13th, Conte goes on vacation to Ibiza and starts his second summer ritiro as Juve coach. When Conte arrives to court, he is shocked to see how antiquated the technology they use is (Conte mentions it took him forever to give his deposition). On July 26th the first sentence arrives, Conte will be charged with failing to report the match fixing rather then being part of the fraud. His lawyers tell him this is good news since it would come with a much lighter sentence, but Conte is angry as he feels he is 100% innocent.
When the trial begins on August 1st, Conte’s lawyers pressure him to take a plea bargain deal and to put his principles aside. Conte reluctantly agrees to do so, because he does realize it will be better for Juve to end the uncertainty on his status. At first it appears Conte will have a 3 month suspension with a heavy fine, but this changes later when prosecutor asks for up to 15 months (trust me Italy is a great place to visit but you do not want to be accused of a crime there).
Conte finally gets back to talking about football (I can assure you I do not enjoy reading and writing about court proceedings) when he describes going to China for the Super Cup match against Napoli. Conte goes back to court for the appeal of his sentence, and while he is acquitted of all wrong doing for the Novara-Siena game his sentence is not halved (honestly when I read these paragraphs I can see why Conte has often said he would like to coach abroad someday). Finally the TNAS (the highest court for sporting matters in Italy) cuts Conte’s sentence from 10 to 4 months, while still allowing Conte to coach the team during practices.
Conte mentions how being suspended on match day, may have been a blessing in disguise as he is even more focused during practices on making the team’s movements and schemes automatic to the players (I personally think Conte’s impact on match day from the bench has always been wildly overrated, and this is not a knock on his overall ability as a coach). Conte will end up looking 22 games from the “Sky Box” in stadiums but is beyond grateful the team makes it through the Champions League group stage so he can make his European debut as coach on Feburary 12th in Glasgow.