Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was cleared of illegal gambling by the Italian football federation (FIGC) on Friday.
The 28-year-old, who kept goal for Italy in their triumphant World Cup campaign this year, was suspected of betting on five Juventus matches between 2004 and last year.
Had he been found guilty, Buffon could have been banned from soccer for anything up to three years.
PHOTO: AP
But FIGC chief prosecutor Stefano Palazzi decided to archive the case after a review of the evidence. Also cleared were former Juventus players Antonio Chimenti, Enzo Maresca and Mark Iuliano.
"I knew that I had done nothing wrong and I am very happy," Buffon was quoted as saying by his lawyer, Silvano Martina.
Martina said that Buffon was always confident he would be acquitted.
"He was convinced of his innocence and we knew that it would end positively," Martina said.
The FIGC opened an investigation into illegal gambling among players after receiving evidence from magistrates in Parma.
Buffon, the world's most expensive keeper, came under suspicion of flouting the law on illegal gambling and voluntarily appeared before magistrates in Turin to plead his case just before the World Cup.
He admitted to placing bets on Juve matches, but insisted he stopped when the FIGC made gambling on any game an offense last year.
Buffon's acquittal brought some festive cheer to Juve after a black year for the "Old Lady."
Juventus were relegated to Italy's second division and given a nine-point handicap for their role in this year's Serie A match-fixing scandal.
The Turin club were also stripped of the league titles they won in the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 seasons and were denied entry into the European Champions League.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with