Betting scandal in Serie A: from Zaniolo to Perin, from Paredes to Di Maria, 12 players under investigation

A new scandal shakes Italian football. The Serie A players investigated by the Milan prosecutor’s office for bets on illegal sites are twelve. Among them well known names, such as those of Sandro Tonali and Nicolò Fagioli – Returned shortly after having served the disqualification – The blue national teams Raul Bellanova and Samuele Ricci, two former Azzurri such as Nicolò Zaniolo (Fiorentina) and Alessandro Florenzi (Milan) the two champions of the Argentine world Angel of Maria and Leandro Paredes (currently in force at Rome), the Juventus American Weston Mc Kennie and his teammate, goalkeeper Mattia Perin, attackers Perin. Matteo Cancellieri (Parma) and Cristian Bonaiuto (Padua), the defender Dominican Firpo (Leeds United). Among the bettors – another dozen – the tennis player Matteo Gigante was also reported.

According to the first investigations, made by the Guardia di Finanza of Turin, it seems that the bets are not referable to football matches, but they are mostly been made on illegal platforms – This is the node of the question – and concerning other disciplines, including online poker. The bets are related to the period from December 2021 to October 2023 – they cover about two years of interceptions – and so far they have led to the seizure of one and a half million euros. There were also five requests for house arrest for the managers of illegal platforms. The investigation started from the chats in tonal and beans phones.

The system adopted was simple. According to the investigators, the players earlier obtained credit from the betting organizers but, if the debt became impressive then they solved the problem By buying in a fictitious way – with transfers – rolex or luxury watches in a Milanese jewelry, that was used as if it were a bank. As the deputy prosecutor Matteo Viola said, this happened for “Hinding the illegal presence of money and make it difficult to identify the real beneficiary”. In fact, the watches remained at the jewelry and the players extinguished the debt. Another system provided for the use of figureheads that would make postepay, revolut and current accounts available to pay off the debt positions.

Now even the players could face a hypothesis of crime. Beans and toners were also investigated to have “advertised” the betting tour. According to the accusation they were the “collectors” of the games. Those who focus on football matches are punished with at least 3 years of disqualification: with collaboration and plea bargaining, discounts are obtained, as happened for tonals (ten months of stop plus two from the English Federation) and beans (twelve months of disqualification, of which five commuted in alternative prescriptions).

Source: Vanity Fair

You may also like