By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – The Italian football federation has kicked third division club Nocerina out of the division as punishment for their players faking injury.
The almost farcical incident took place in November during the notoriously bitter derby at Salernitana which was abandoned at halftime.
The visitors had made their three permitted substitutions in the first two minutes of the game and five players more went off injured in the next 20, leaving them below the required minimum of seven.
The players were apparently reluctant to play following death threats from their own ‘Ultras’ fans who had been banned from attending the game. On hearing the game had been called off, they later celebrated in a public square.
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said in a statement that Nocerina had now been relegated to a minor league and fined €10,000.
“Nocerina have been excluded from the Lega Pro championship for sporting fraud and will be assigned by the Federal Council to one of the leagues’ lower categories,” the FIGC said.
“The decision comes into effect immediately and has been announced to the Lega Pro and its stakeholders.”
The club’s president Luigi Benevento was banned for three years and six months along with general director Luigi Pavarese and team doctor Giovanni Rosati. Five players were banned for one year each, while six were acquitted.
The encounter in southern Naples, dubbed the “derby of hate” by Italian media, had already started 40 minutes late with the Nocerina players needing to be persuaded to take the field.
Salernitana’s club president Claudio Lotito, who holds the same position at Serie A giants Lazio, compared the fixture between the bitter rivals to forcing “Israelis to take on the Palestinians”.
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