ROME: Former Italy international and AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso is under investigation on suspicion of being part of a match-fixing operation affecting dozens of Serie A games, justice system officials said on Tuesday.
Police also arrested four individuals in connection with the case which is believed to have involved more than 30 matches stretching back to 2009.
Gattuso, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, denied any connection with match-fixing and said the accusations were “absurd.”
“I’m angry and offended,” he told Sportmediaset television. “I don’t even know how you would fix a match. I don’t know how you’d go about it,” he said.
Gattuso, 35, twice won the Champions League with Milan. He was sacked as manager by Serie B Palermo in September after a string of bad results.
Former Lazio, AC Milan and Inter Milan player Cristian Brocchi is also being investigated, officials said.
“It was a big surprise, we’re all quite shocked. I’ve known Cristian for years and I think he’s got nothing to do with any of this,” Brocchi’s agent Davide Lippi told SkyTG24 television. “Cristian is calm about it,” he said.
Cremona chief prosecutor Roberto Di Martino told a news conference that investigators had identified telephone and SMS contacts between go-betweens and a number of players or individuals connected with teams ahead of matches.
The latest arrests and searches come after a three-year investigation which has produced evidence of an organized system among former and current footballers, sports betting operators and others to manipulate the result of dozens of soccer matches.
Prosecutors say bets worth tens of thousands of euros, and in some cases hundreds of thousands, have been placed on both the top-flight Serie A and Serie B matches.
The investigation was triggered by a second-tier Serie B match in Cremona in 2010 which aroused suspicions that led to a wider probe.
Former Lazio and Italy striker Giuseppe Signori was banned for five years and 15 other players have been suspended for between one and five years for their part in the scandal.
Di Martino said the case showed that the match-fixing scandal which has hung over Italian soccer since the 2006 “Calciopoli” scandal which saw Juventus stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles had not been resolved.
“There hasn’t been much reaction in Italy given that things have kept going as they were before,” he said.
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Gattuso tagged as Italian match-fixing probe widens
Gattuso tagged as Italian match-fixing probe widens
The danger is real for Tottenham as specter of Premier League relegation looms
What’s been increasingly apparent to despairing Tottenham fans for some months is now suddenly clear for everyone: their team could genuinely be relegated from the Premier League.
Spurs have been regarded for some time as part of England’s so-called “Big Six” — so much so that they were involved in the quickly aborted Super League project in 2021 — but they aren’t playing like it, at least in the Premier League.
Last season, Tottenham finished in 17th place, one spot above the bottom three, but was never in realistic danger of relegation.
This season, the danger is real. Tottenham is in 16th place but just four points above the relegation zone with 11 rounds remaining and is the only team in the league without a win in 2026 heading into a match at Fulham on Sunday.
The only victories this calendar year have come in the Champions League, which Tottenham finished in the top eight after the first stage to advance directly to the round of 16.
Spurs — the Europa League winners last season — haven’t been able to reproduce their European exploits in the Premier League, with their shortcomings exposed in a 4-1 thrashing by fierce rival Arsenal last weekend. That was Igor Tudor ‘s first match in charge of Tottenham and it laid bare the scale of the task facing the Croatian, who replaced Thomas Frank at the helm.
Tudor has a long injury list to deal with — among the top players on it are James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Lucas Bergvall and Pedro Porro — as well as confidence issues within the squad. Do they have the stomach for a relegation battle?
Also going against Tottenham is the fact that third-to-last West Ham is showing more resilience in recent weeks, losing just one of its eight games in all competitions.
It doesn’t help, either, that while Spurs are at a low ebb, Arsenal is currently the top team in England.
Tottenham has been an ever-present in the Premier League since the competition was founded in 1992, and last played in the second tier in the 1977-78 season.
Key matchups
The title race resumes with first-place Arsenal at home to Chelsea. They recently met over two legs in the English League Cup semifinals and Arsenal won both games.
Manchester City is five points behind in second place, though has a game in hand, and is away to Leeds. That sees City striker Erling Haaland return to the city where he was born.
Players to watch
Manchester United striker Benjamin Sesko will be looking to score in a third straight game when Crystal Palace visits Old Trafford. Sesko scored an equalizer against West Ham and then a winner at Everton, both times off the bench.
Out of action
Liverpool manager Arne Slot will hope for positive news about Germany playmaker Florian Wirtz, who missed the win at Nottingham Forest last weekend because of back pain.
Liverpool hosts West Ham on Saturday.
Off the field
It seems Crystal Palace and its manager, Oliver Glasner, are heading toward a messy break-up.
Glasner, who led Palace to its first ever trophy last season by winning the FA Cup, has already confirmed he’s leaving his job at the end of the season and has been non-committal about whether he would even be staying that long.
Fans held up a banner containing the words, “Fans disrespected — Glasner finished” during a match against Wolverhampton last weekend.
Spurs have been regarded for some time as part of England’s so-called “Big Six” — so much so that they were involved in the quickly aborted Super League project in 2021 — but they aren’t playing like it, at least in the Premier League.
Last season, Tottenham finished in 17th place, one spot above the bottom three, but was never in realistic danger of relegation.
This season, the danger is real. Tottenham is in 16th place but just four points above the relegation zone with 11 rounds remaining and is the only team in the league without a win in 2026 heading into a match at Fulham on Sunday.
The only victories this calendar year have come in the Champions League, which Tottenham finished in the top eight after the first stage to advance directly to the round of 16.
Spurs — the Europa League winners last season — haven’t been able to reproduce their European exploits in the Premier League, with their shortcomings exposed in a 4-1 thrashing by fierce rival Arsenal last weekend. That was Igor Tudor ‘s first match in charge of Tottenham and it laid bare the scale of the task facing the Croatian, who replaced Thomas Frank at the helm.
Tudor has a long injury list to deal with — among the top players on it are James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Lucas Bergvall and Pedro Porro — as well as confidence issues within the squad. Do they have the stomach for a relegation battle?
Also going against Tottenham is the fact that third-to-last West Ham is showing more resilience in recent weeks, losing just one of its eight games in all competitions.
It doesn’t help, either, that while Spurs are at a low ebb, Arsenal is currently the top team in England.
Tottenham has been an ever-present in the Premier League since the competition was founded in 1992, and last played in the second tier in the 1977-78 season.
Key matchups
The title race resumes with first-place Arsenal at home to Chelsea. They recently met over two legs in the English League Cup semifinals and Arsenal won both games.
Manchester City is five points behind in second place, though has a game in hand, and is away to Leeds. That sees City striker Erling Haaland return to the city where he was born.
Players to watch
Manchester United striker Benjamin Sesko will be looking to score in a third straight game when Crystal Palace visits Old Trafford. Sesko scored an equalizer against West Ham and then a winner at Everton, both times off the bench.
Out of action
Liverpool manager Arne Slot will hope for positive news about Germany playmaker Florian Wirtz, who missed the win at Nottingham Forest last weekend because of back pain.
Liverpool hosts West Ham on Saturday.
Off the field
It seems Crystal Palace and its manager, Oliver Glasner, are heading toward a messy break-up.
Glasner, who led Palace to its first ever trophy last season by winning the FA Cup, has already confirmed he’s leaving his job at the end of the season and has been non-committal about whether he would even be staying that long.
Fans held up a banner containing the words, “Fans disrespected — Glasner finished” during a match against Wolverhampton last weekend.
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