Investigation, it’s up to the FIGC: Chinè asks the Milan prosecutor’s office for the documents

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office wasted no time. The notice of investigation against Gianluca Rocchi meant that already yesterday morning Giuseppe Chinè moved to ask the public prosecutor of the Republic of Milan for the documents of the ongoing investigation, which will have an important stage on April 30th with the interrogation of the designator. Because what is emerging is very different from what the Prosecutor’s Office investigated and closed a year ago.

the reporting

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At the center of that investigation, which started from the report of 21 May 2025 by the assistant referee Domenico Rocca (in a letter in which he mainly complained of having received evaluations which he said were unfair and in which there was no reference to alleged piloted designations), there are two episodes on potential interference by Rocchi: the change in the vote of the assistant Perrotti at the end of the Lazio-Genoa match on 27 October 2024 and the report of a penalty made knocking on the glass of a Var room in Lissone to alert the Var Daniele Paterna and the Avar Simone Sozza. To clarify how things really went, the FIGC Prosecutor’s Office immediately started a series of hearings. Let’s get into it. The first was that of Rocca, on May 30, 2025, which confirmed the two episodes in question. The second, on 12 June, is from Gianluca Rocchi, who in addition to reiterating that he has the duty to designate the referees who give greater guarantees, denies having intervened in the cases of Lazio-Genoa and Udinese-Parma. But he’s not the only one doing it. Chinè hears all the people involved.

the other hearings

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The technical observer Riccardo Tozzi, interviewed on 16 June, declared that he had changed Perrotti’s vote (from 8.40 to 8.50) after reviewing a video on a decision that he had initially judged to be incorrect. He was specifically asked if he had also spoken about it with Rocchi. The answer is clear: “Absolutely not”, adding that “Rocchi has never allowed himself to behave like this”. And let’s move on to the case of Lissone’s ‘knock’. On 10 July Paterna and Sozza were heard, both denying that Rocchi knocked on the glass to signal the penalty, also recalling that they always wear soundproof headphones. Furthermore, Rocca himself had declared to Chinè that he “could not state with certainty that Rocchi was behind the glass”. Also for this reason, on 29 July the proceedings against the designator were closed, moreover – as expected in these cases – with the agreement and approval of the General Prosecutor’s Office for Sport at CONI (if it had not agreed it could have taken charge of the investigation), with which the FIGC Prosecutor’s Office is also in constant contact. Rocca’s complaint was judged unfounded, also because it was “driven by reasons of a personal nature”, so much so that he himself had declared during the hearing that “if they had given me the same possibility of moving from the role of assistant to Var, I would have thought twice about making this strong act, this complaint”.

no cover-ups

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In short, a complete and in-depth work which shows no desire to hide anything, as some have more or less latently supposed. Furthermore, we are talking about an indication given by the designator, not by a club manager: the violation of the Code of Sports Justice, if the case had been ascertained, would have occurred, in relation to the famous article 4 on the observance of the principles of loyalty, correctness and probity, but the sanction in any case would not have been excessively heavy.

new file

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Be careful though, the Rocchi affair does not end here from a sporting point of view. The dismissal was made “at the state of the proceedings”, therefore without any reference to the Milanese prosecutors’ accusations that Rocchi had ‘combined’ the designation of the referee Colombo for Bologna-Inter on 20 April 2025 and of Doveri in the semi-final of the Inter-Milan Italian Cup to ensure that he could not be designated for the final. Sports justice has yet to make its full progress on this. The first step was taken yesterday by asking Milan for the documents, expected in the next few days or perhaps after Rocchi’s interrogation on April 30th. Therefore, if new elements emerge, as it seems, a new file will be opened.