"The legal affairs department of RAI has been tasked with studying...the possibility of a legal ation against FIFA for reimbursement for damages sustained by the company following the elimination of the Italian team from the current World Cup, as a consequence of the unanimous recognition of obvious refereeing errors," RAI said.
RAI paid EUR80 million($77m) for the rights to broadcast the World Cup matches in Italy, but the team was defeated in the second round of the competition by South Korea in a match where the referee ruled that a golden goal by Damiano Tommasi was offside even though video evidence showed otherwise. Star player Francesco Totti was also controversially sent off.
Italy's matches regularly draw audiences of about 20 million during the World Cup, but this figure is likely to drop by at least half for the remainder of the games, which will be detrimental to the network's sponsors.
According to financial daily magazine Il Sole 24 Ore
