By Andrew Warshaw
July 25 – Italian giants Lazio could start next season with a six-point deduction and be without their captain Stefano Mauri for more than four years following the start of their match-fixing trial.
Prosecutor Stefano Palazzi has also asked for the Rome club to be fined €20,000 ($26,000) and for Genoa and Lecce, also caught up in the scandal that has rocked Italian football, to be docked three points each.
Mauri is one of eight players accused of rigging games and failing to report match-fixing for two crucial Serie A fixtures – Lazio vs. Genoa and Lecce vs. Lazio – in May 2011. Lazio won both 4-2.
Palazzi has requested 33-year-old Mauri be handed the heaviest sentence, a 54-month ban, and has recommended bans ranging from 12 to 42 months for Omar Milanetto, Massimiliano Benassi, Antonio Rosati, Stefano Ferrario, Mario Cassano and Alessandro Zamperini. Carlo Gervasoni plea-bargained for a two-month reduction on his previous sentence. All should learn their fate next week.
At least 50 people have been arrested in Italy for match-fixing since mid-2011, with games under investigation by prosecutors in Cremona, Bari and Napoli.
During investigations last year, Cremona criminal court prosecutor Roberto Di Martino said there was an “absolute superabundance” of evidence about the Lecce-Lazio match.
He said gamblers had appeared to win about €2 million on the game and paid €600,000 to bribe the players.
At the beginning of this month, Bari, in Serie B, plea-bargained for a one-point penalty for match-fixing and were also fined €25,000 under a deal struck with the Italian football federation’s disciplinary committee.
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