June 30 – Italian Serie B club Catania faces relegation after its president admitted fixing five games last season to avoid dropping out of the division.
Antonio Pulvirenti (pictured) was arrested last week and the club released a statement admitting he made contact “with other parties in order to influence the outcome of several matches”, but that he believed his contacts “did not have any real effect on the matches in question.”
Catania were already relegated from Serie A in 2013-14 and finished three points above the Serie B relegation playoff places in May.
According to ITA Sport Press, they will be demoted again and will also face a severe points penalty for next season.
Pulvirenti was among seven people arrested in connection with the affair and according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, quoting Catania’s lead prosecutor, he confirmed “that he bought (the results of) matches from the Varese-Catania game onwards, and that he paid €100,000 for each one. He did it to save Catania.”
The club’s sporting director Pablo Cosentino and ex-sporting director Daniele Delli Carri were arrested along with Pulvirenti, the latest in a series of match-fixing scandals to hit Italian football.
Last month an investigation dubbed ‘Dirty Soccer’ by the Italian media led to 50 arrests in connection with illegal match-fixing in 31 matches, mainly in Italy’s lower professional leagues.
Some 3,000 supporters of Sicilian-based Catania have held street demonstrations amid the allegations.
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