FIGC told the prosecutor’s office that the creditors wanted to “break his legs”: he could go back to the magistrates. Attempted extortion against him?
– TURIN
Nicolò Fagioli will not set foot on the pitch with Juventus again until May 19th and at the Allianz Stadium he will only be able to play the last match of the championship (Juve-Monza, May 26th), but on the other hand he could become a protagonist again in the Court in Turin. He closed the matter with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office with a 7-month effective disqualification, another could be added with the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office, which at the beginning of the summer included him in the register of suspects for betting on illegal platforms. In recent months, the 22-year-old Juventus midfielder was questioned first by Turin magistrates and then by the federal ones. And to the FIGC prosecutor (Chiné), as emerged from the minutes, the Piacenza native declared among other things: “They told me: pay or we’ll break your legs”, with reference to the creditors of the illicit platforms with which he would have accumulated, for his same admission, around 3 million in debt in recent years with wild bets on every type of sport, even football, but not on Juventus and Cremonese. A strong passage of the confession, made however only at a later time to the federal prosecutor’s office and not initially to that of Turin. Is it just a question of timing, of fears that have grown over time or is there something else? The Piedmontese investigators would also like to see more clearly in this story. Not so much – and not only – to understand why Fagioli said this to Rome and not to them, but rather to verify whether the Juventus number 21 could be the victim of attempted extortion. For all these reasons, although a decision has not yet been definitively taken and is still being studied, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Piedmontese capital is reportedly considering the possibility of questioning Fagioli again. And possibly to open a new case for attempted extortion, in which however the Juventus player would be the injured party.
pm police summit
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The investigations of the Turin Prosecutor’s Office conducted by prosecutor Manuela Pedrotta and the Mobile of the Piedmontese capital, started in 2022 on the basis of much larger checks on the world of illicit betting, continue apace. Yesterday afternoon the magistrates and the police met in the Prosecutor’s Office for a new summit. A meeting to take stock of the situation regarding the investigation, the latest news that has come to light and the new steps to be taken. Including the possibility of listening to Fagioli again to clarify the issue of the threats he received from the owners of the illegal platforms with which he accumulated millions in debt. The Mobile-magistrates update was also useful for verifying the news that emerged from the cell phones and tablets seized from Sandro Tonali and Nicolò Zaniolo – under investigation for illegal gambling – during last week’s raid in Coverciano. The work of the IT department, in fact dealing with a sort of x-ray of all the chats present in the Azzurri’s smartphones, is painstaking and long. The finish line, however, is reported to be getting closer and closer and the suspicion-fear in the world of football – and not only in that – is that this latest betting scandal could spread and involve more high-level players, at least a dozen. Even in recent days, many names of Serie A footballers have circulated on social media, but the Turin Prosecutor’s Office has reiterated that for the moment the elements in their possession concern only the three suspects: Fagioli (Juventus), Tonali (Newcastle) and Zaniolo (Aston Villa), who could raid the Mole for questioning at the beginning of next week. A bit like what happened to Tonali in recent days. The three players – Fagioli, Tonali and Zaniolo – are accused of article 4 of the law on the abusive exercise of betting (401 of 1989), in paragraph 3: anyone who “participates in illegal competitions, games or bets”, conduct sanctioned with imprisonment of up to three months or a fine.
FEAR
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What if from the analysis of the smartphones elements emerge about other footballers who have bet on illegal platforms and perhaps even on football as admitted so far by Fagioli and Tonali (not by Zaniolo, who said he had played poker on illicit sites)? Once the investigation, currently very open, is closed, the Turin Prosecutor’s Office will send the documents to Chiné and at that point the risk of new Fagioli-style disqualifications could become more concrete. But for now, and until proven otherwise, it’s just a hypothesis.
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