Three top-flight professional soccer clubs in Italy’s Serie A league are under investigation for match fixing. The three teams Siena, Novara and Atalanta are alleged to have manipulated games and bet on the results, said the Italian Football Federation.
The IFF released a 48-page document that listed 22 clubs and 61 people that were reported to authorities of the Federation in connection with a betting and match-fixing investigation.
A statement was released by the IFF that read, “With regard to the investigation that was carried out by judges from Cremona, the prosecutor has reported 22 clubs and 61 people to the Disciplinary Commission. Fifty-two of the people were active players when the investigation took place, four were executives and three of those involved were coaches.”
The match-fixing probe was performed by judges in Cremona a city in northern Italy and focused on 33 games that took place over the past two seasons. The vast majority of those 33 games involved Serie B teams, which is the second level professional league in Italy. However, the last two Coppa Italia tournaments have matches that were also investigated.
Last year, in another investigation, Italian police arrested 17 people, including the captain of Atalanta, Cristiano Doni. At the completion of the 2010-2011 season, Atalanta was promoted to the top league, Serie A. They started this past season with a deduction of six points, as part of the punishment received for the earlier match fixing scandal. The IFF also banned Doni from participating in professional soccer in Italy for three and a half years.
