By Andrew Warshaw
July 29 – Torino’s Belgian international goalkeeper Jean Francois Gillet (pictured) has failed with his appeal against a 43-month match-fixing ban imposed by the Italian football federation (FIGC).
Gillet, who has won nine caps for his country, was one of 20 players and officials suspended over their roles in two matches involving his former club Bari in 2008 and 2009.
He was on Bari’s books between 2001 and 2011, playing in both the matches under suspicion, and the tribunal’s appeal decision would appear to signal the end of the 34-year-old’s career.
Bari finished in mid-table after losing 0-1 at home to Treviso in one of their final matches of the 2007-08 season and secured promotion a year later despite being beaten 3-2 at Salernitana
The tribunal also rejected 11 other appeals including one from former Bari and Salernitana player Massimo Ganci, who was given a four-year ban, and ex-Bari player Gianluca Galasso who was suspended for three years and seven months.
It also got tough by accepting a prosecution appeal against the acquittal of former Bari and Treviso player William Pianu – and promptly suspended him for three and half years.
But it halved ex-Bari player Corrado Colombo’s six-month ban on appeal while former Bari loanee Raffaele Bianco had his suspension of three and a half years reduced to six months.
Italy has been hit by a wave of match-fixing allegations with police investigating cases in Cremona, Bari and Naples.
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