May 20 – More than 50 people including coaches, directors and players, have been arrested as part of a massive match-fixing crackdown in Italy.
Those detained are suspected of rigging dozens of 2014-15 matches in the country’s third division and its top semi-pro league involving around 30 clubs.
Match-fixing has become almost endemic in Italy with few lessons seemingly learned from the 2006 scandal that saw Juventus stripped of two Serie A titles and relegated with a 30-point deduction.
The current investigation, which reportedly began when police tapped the phone of a member of a mob family in Calabria, resulted in 27 team presidents and managers, 17 players, five coaches, and one police officer being detained.
“The probe demonstrates there was a heinous pact of corruption in the world of soccer,” Andrea Grassi, investigator for Italy’s elite SCO, an Italian anti-mafia police unit, said.
“It shows the interest of criminal networks in the business generated by soccer and the legal betting industry.”
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