Italian champions Inter Milan denied allegations they kept tabs on disgraced referee Massimo De Santis, local media reported Monday (Sep 25th).

The club, the ref claimed, hired a firm of private investigators in 2002 to look into suspicions that De Santis had illicit relations with fallen Turin giants Juventus, reports said.

De Santis said the investigators Inter allegedly hired illegally tapped his telephone calls.

He claimed the private eyes told the club that there was no evidence to suggest any wrongdoing.

However, FIGC banned De Santis for four years and relegated Juventus to Serie B this summer after other wiretaps recorded by criminal prosecutors suggested the referee was in cahoots with Juve's management.

Inter were awarded the 2006 league title, which Juve had won, as a result.

The Inter-De Santis case emerged as part of a wider controversy over alleged illegal wiretaps conducted at Telecom Italia.

Police have arrested 21 people suspected of involvement.

Telecom Italia's former president, Marco Tronchetti Provera, is an Inter shareholder. Provera resigned as Telecom boss on September 15 due to a row over plans to sell Telecom's mobile division, TIM.

At the weekend De Santis expressed his "disgust" at Inter's main shareholder, Massimo Moratti, for having "spied" on him.

He also hinted that Moratti had wanted to blackmail him.

Moratti responded Monday, calling De Santis' allegations "absurd ".

"What De Santis' said was totally unfounded," Moratti told Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. "It takes a lot of courage to say something like this. Inter has nothing to do with any of it".

Inter coach Roberto Mancini also hit back, claiming it was ironic that a referee involved in one of Italian soccer's biggest-ever scandals should try to claim the moral high ground.

On Sunday Inter's transfer-market chief, Gabriele Oriali, insisted the club had "nothing to fear" from the FIGC probe.

Editor: Donald