Italy hands out point deductions and five-year bans to match-fixers

By Andrew Warshaw

June 20 – Italy may have progressed to the last eight of the 2012 European Championship but off the field the image of the game has taken another damaging blow after the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced it had upheld newly promoted Pescara’s two-point deduction and banned four players for five years over the country’s match-fixing scandal.

Piacenza’s Mario Cassano (pictured above), Ravenna’s Alessandro Zamperini and former professionals Luigi Sartor and Nicola Santoni all received the bans, however, Novara, who were relegated to Serie B last season, will start next term with a four-point deduction instead of the six originally imposed.

Other punishments handed out include a two-point deduction for Serie B side Padova, one point for Empoli and four for Reggina, while third-tier AlbinoLeffe received a 15-point deduction and Piacenza were deducted 11.

Serie A sides Sampdoria and Siena were handed €50,000 (£40,400/$63,500) fines for alleged collusion when they were both in Serie B.

In all, the latest wave of punishments has cracked down on 21 clubs and 52 players for their roles in a scandal that has shared top headline billing in the country alongside the national team’s displays in Poland and Ukraine.

Pescara President Daniele Sebastiani said his club, who were Serie B champions last season before losing their coach Zdeněk Zeman to Roma, would fight the ban.

“We didn’t expect this decision, rather we expected to be acquitted,” Sebastiani (pictured above) said.

“Evidently in this first phase of the investigation the sporting judges wanted to give strength to the prosecution’s version of events.

“We have absolutely nothing to do with any of this, and we will go, if we need to, all the way to CONI (the Italian Olympic Committee).”

Former Inter Milan forward Nicola Ventola, who retired last year, was given a three-and-a-half-year ban by the federation.

Italian football was still coming to terms with the 2006 ‘Calciopoli’ scandal when the latest affair exploded last June.

Former Lazio striker Giuseppe Signori (pictured above) has been banned from all football activities for five years and others embroiled in the scandal include Lazio’s Stefano Mauri and ex-international midfielder Cristiano Doni, while a number of second, third and fourth-tier matches are suspected of being rigged.

The affair has also implicated Juventus coach Antonio Conte, who has just guided his team to the Serie A title, but he denies any allegations linking him to the scandal during his time with Siena.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti even suggested recently that football be suspended for up to three years in the country to help eradicate match-fixing.

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