Nine ex-Bari players in match-fixing probe
Reuters - Monday 02 April 2012, 17:29
Former Bari defender Andrea
Masiello - now playing for Atalanta - was arrested on Monday in
connection with alleged match-fixing in Serie A last season as
Italian football faced up to the latest in a string of scandals.
Eight of Masiello's team-mates from Bari last season were
also being investigated by police over the possible manipulation
of matches.
"Around one dozen people are under investigation and nine of
these are ex-players of the Bari team, involved in the alleged
fixing of nine matches in last season's Serie A championship,"
the Italian football federation (FIGC) said in a the statement.
Police said two of Masiello's friends who bet on match
results had also been arrested. The three men are detained in
prison in the southern city of Bari.
They were all involved in match fixing generating "extremely
high winnings", said the city's chief prosecutor Antonio
Laudati.
Laudati said investigations suggested a total of five
matches had been manipulated during the 2010/11 season and
2009/10.
Italian media have focused mainly on a Serie A game between
local rivals Bari and Lecce in May last year in which Bari, now
in the Italian Serie B second division, lost 2-0 with Masiello
scoring an own goal in the 80th minute.
Bari had already been relegated by the time the match was
played.
SPECIAL TASK FORCE
Bari's sporting director Guido Angelozzi said the club had
nothing to do with any manipulation of the result.
"We thought it was a normal match," he told SkyTG24
television. "The club is a damaged party in this. It gained no
advantage from this at all."
Laudati said other possibly fixed matches, all involving
Bari, were a 4-0 away win against Bologna, also in May 2011, a
1-0 defeat at Cesena in April 2011 and a 3-3 draw at Udinese and
a 3-0 victory at home to Genoa, both in May 2010.
In June last year, the Interior Ministry set up a special
match-fixing task force in response to a number of high-profile
cases.
Former Atalanta captain and Italy midfielder Cristiano Doni
was banned for three-and-a-half years in August for his part in
the 'Calcioscommesse' match-fixing and betting scandal involving
Serie B matches last season.
Atalanta, promoted from Serie B, were deducted six points in
the top flight this season as a result of the affair.
Former Lazio and Italy striker Giuseppe Signori was banned
for five years and 15 other players were banned for between one
and five years for their part in the same scandal.
Mighty Juventus were demoted to Serie B in 2006 because of
match-fixing and are only now challenging for the Italian title
again.