Former Atalanta captain Cristiano Doni has reportedly admitted helping to fix Serie B matches involving his team last season. He said he agreed to go along with the scam because his team was not supposed to lose.
Doni was among 16 people arrested across Italy on Monday last week in an ongoing investigation into match-fixing and illegal betting on games.
After five days of solitary confinement, Doni was permitted to meet with his lawyer on Friday and was then questioned by prosecutors.
Photo: EPA
“Yes, I knew about the fix for Atalanta-Piacenza. I gave my approval and I bet,” Doni was quoted as saying by Saturday’s Gazzetta dello Sport. “I also tried to do the same thing for the match with Ascoli. But they were all personal initiatives, I’m not part of any organization ... The club didn’t know anything.”
Atalanta beat Piacenza 3-0, while the Ascoli versus Atalanta match finished 1-1. Details have not yet emerged as to precisely what Doni did in the fixed games.
In June, 16 people were arrested as part of the first wave of the inquiry and Doni was then placed under investigation.
Doni said at the time that he was innocent, but in August he was banned from soccer for three-and-a-half years by the Italian soccer federation’s disciplinary committee and Atalanta — which was promoted to Serie A for this season — was given a six-point penalty.
“I said yes to the fixes because Atalanta benefited,” Doni said, according to the Gazzetta. “I would have never listened to anyone who offered me money to make my squad lose. I made a mistake and now I can’t even look at myself in the mirror because it makes me think about all the pain I’ve caused my family and the fans.”
“The relegation to Serie B hurt me and that’s why I accepted these offers,” Doni added. “By winning we were sure to be promoted.”
The latest arrests come five years after another major match-fixing scandal — restricted to club and referee officials, but not players — resulted in Juventus getting relegated to Serie B for a season, plus point penalties for Lazio, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Reggina in Serie A.
The prosecutors in Cremona, who are leading the current investigation, have detailed an extensive match-fixing ring stretching as far as Singapore and South America and that has allegedly been in operation for more than 10 years.
Three Serie A matches from last season are also under investigation: Brescia versus Bari, Brescia versus Lecce and Napoli versus Sampdoria.
A telephone call was reportedly intercepted between Doni and Ravenna goalkeeping coach Nicola Santoni — who was also arrested — in which the pair discuss tampering with Santoni’s iPhone, which had been confiscated by police in June.
Doni was arrested on suspicion of attempting to destroy evidence. He was due to be released from prison on Saturday, but will remain under house arrest.
Others arrested on Monday last week include former Inter Milan and Roma player Luigi Sartor, former Serie B player Alessandro Zamperini and active players Carlo Gervasoni of Piacenza and Filippo Carobbio of Spezia.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB