Il Corriere dello Sport report that Newcastle United midfielder Sandro Tonali is ready to cooperate with authorities in relation to the ongoing betting investigation that involves him, Nicolo Zanioli and Nicolo Fagioli. The trio are being investigated by the Turin Public Prosecutors office following reports that they alleged used illegal betting platforms.
Il Corriere write that:
“Tonali will talk, between today and tomorrow. He will open the drawer of memories, explain circumstances that have so far remained obscure, give an account of rather compromising chats concerning his conversations on the subject of betting with other colleagues who have still remained out (who knows for how long) of the media cyclone. He, too, will self-report to the sports justice system, with different timing than that of Fagioli, who as early as the end of May anticipated the sending of files from the Turin prosecutor’s office to the Figc prosecutor’s office, admitting his guilt in a meeting with Chiné. Sandro will probably say “yes, I bet on football,” including on Serie A and Champions League. “But never on Milan,” as people close to the midfielder are reporting. The boy’s mood remains somber, after the tears of the past few days, more than the Newcastle sky.
Tonali’s lawyers yesterday went to Turin for talks with prosecutor Pedrotta, who is in charge of an investigation that only marginally touches football but is having the power to turn it upside down anyway. The same contacts have been made by Zaniolo’s lawyer. Both are preparing the ground for their clients’ hearings, but it is not certain that the Figc prosecutor’s office will be able to move ahead. In the next 48 hours, in fact, Chiné is expected to have a video meeting with the former AC Milan player, since unlike Zaniolo (who reiterates that he only played cards and never on football) he has advanced the need to offer full and genuine cooperation as soon as possible. As a reminder: a footballer who bets on football commits an offense only for sports justice (Article 24 of the code, at least 3 years stop plus a hefty fine), if he then does so on his own club’s matches he approaches illicit knowledge (at least 4 years), as well as those who know and do not report risk, who risk at least 6 months ban; while from the criminal point of view there is sanction only if the bets take place on illegal platforms.
the Turin prosecutor has investigated the two national team players for the latter circumstance, namely for abusive exercise of gambling and betting activities, a misdemeanor that leads to a financial penalty alternative to arrest. But then, given the tenuousness of the act, why does the judiciary have an urgent need to hear Tonali and Zaniolo? If the raid at Coverciano can be explained by the fear that the evidence in the devices of the two athletes could have been polluted, the importance of the prosecutors’ hearings has to do with the suspicion that there are multi-level involvements. In short, before they derail the whole thing and leave the field open to the federal prosecutor’s office, they in Turin want to see it through.
Yesterday, meanwhile, after a summit at the Palace of Justice in Turin described as an “update” between the regent prosecutor, prosecutor, managers and investigators from the Questura mobile squad, a forensic copy of the cell phones seized by police from Zaniolo and Tonali while they were in training camp with the Azzurri was made. Analysis of the material can now begin. If Fagioli’s chats have led federal prosecutors to widen the field well beyond the Juventino, additional elements may emerge from Tonali and Zaniolo’s conversations. “In my opinion, 90 percent of footballers bet, I have spoken with so many of them,” said said Francesco Baranca, secretary general of Federbet, the international organization fighting illegal betting, yesterday – They have free time, they love adrenaline, they have a competitive spirit and they have a lot of money. And that makes them very prone to gambling.” “We have done a lot of training over the past decades, even in team retreats. Evidently it’s not enough,” added Assocalciatori president Calcagno to “Politics in the Ball.”
