Oh Look, Another Scandal
By: Martha | December 6th, 2006
Man alive. I spend a day traveling and in meetings, and all hell breaks loose — in addition to the Champions League excitement, there’s the little issue of Serie A players being named as suspects in a betting investigation. Doh! The investigation, as opposed to the ongoing one based in Turin and Parma that involves Juve players, was conducted in Northern Italy, and the majority of the players in question either play for Udinese (like one Vincenzo Iaquinta) or did so in the past (like Marek Jankulovski and David Di Michele — maybe stress of this was why he was so bad against Parma last weekend); a lot of players passed through the team in seven years being examined. Though as I understand it footballers weren’t banned from sports betting until late last year, there’s suspicion that many of the bets in question were placed with an illegal bookmaker, hence the law’s interest.
To this point in the story, the whole thing is stupid, but not scandalous. The problem, however, is that many of the players are alleged to have bet on their own teams (often Udine, one assumes), which of course raises suspicion of match-fixing. I mean, for the love of GOD. Could someone please explain the appeal of betting and match-fixing to these people? It’s not as if they’re not well paid. Is it really worth the risk for another handful of lire? I just don’t get it.
Of course, everyone denies wrong-doing, and it’ll be a while before anything happens: The evidence has been handed over to the FIGC, and they’re the ones who will go after the players. At most, if they’re found to have participated in illegal betting or match-fixing, year-long suspensions are possible. Possible, but probably unlikely.
Edit: It seems the UK’s Eurobet has something to do with the scandal, but I can’t make heads or tails of this translation. Anybody who actually speaks Italian, feel free to help us out.
Category: 
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share
      |
Comments
-
Martha, nothing to say about Inter Milan’s player ? Oh yes, because there is nothing say against Inter Milan this time. You don’t mention that Jankulovski and Kalac now play for Milan Ac.
Posted from
Italy
-
Apparently the bets were placed with Eurobet, who has refuted the claims saying the betting slips shown are false. At least, that’s what I made out from the article…
Also, completely off topic post there from Simon.. No Inter players involved? Great! So what? Sure, two current Ac Milan players are involved but so what? Its Udinese thats the club in common…
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Thank you, Sam.
Posted from
United States
Comments are closed
Home 
