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.
Gattuso tagged as Italian match-fixing probe widens
Gattuso tagged as Italian match-fixing probe widens
Silva scores late equalizer as Dortmund grab 2-2 draw at Leipzig
- Silva then seized his moment with a left footed shot five minutes into extra time
- Dortmund remained unbeaten in their last eight away games
LEIPZIG, Germany: Fabio Silva grabbed a stoppage time equalizer as Borussia Dortmund drew 2-2 at RB Leipzig to trim Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga lead to eight points on Saturday.
Second placed Dortmund had been heading for defeat after Christoph Baumgartner scored twice from close range in the first half.
The visitors came back after the break and their hopes were revived by a Romulo own goal five minutes into the half but they were still staring at defeat as the clock ticked into an added seven minutes.
Silva then seized his moment with a left footed shot five minutes into extra time.
Dortmund remained unbeaten in their last eight away games but their six match winning run came to an end at the Red Bull Arena.
Max Beir had looked like putting them ahead when he broke clear and went one-on-one on goal for Dortmund after eight minutes, but his shot was straight at goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt, and then Leipzig took control.
Baumgartner made the breakthrough in the 20th minute when Yan Diomande, in sparkling form, sent a low cross into the box for him to glance in right-footed with his back to the net.
The goal was given after an offside check.
Baumgartner took his 10th goal of the season and doubled his tally in the 39th with a perfectly timed run to tap in a cross from David Raum as the hosts ripped Dortmund apart down the left.
Leipzig, with just one win from their last six outings, stayed fifth in the standings, one point behind VfB Stuttgart who have a game in hand.
Harry Kane struck his eighth brace of the season as Bayern beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 in an earlier kickoff. Dortmund host Bayern next week.
