2023-10-26 13:39:30
After Nicolo Fagioli, another great hope in Italian football sees his career compromised by the illicit sports betting affair: Sandro Tonali has received a ten-month suspension, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced on Thursday. “The sanction imposed on Tonali is 18 months: ten months of suspension and eight of probation,” the FIGC explained to AFP.
Having become the most expensive Italian player in history by joining Newcastle for 64 million euros, Tonali, 23, was suspended longer than Fagioli, a Juventus midfielder who was sanctioned for seven months without competition on October 17 .
Aggravating circumstances, the Italian international has indeed bet on matches of Brescia (2017-20) and AC Milan (2020-23) when he wore the jersey of these two teams, always betting on victories of its clubs.
Tonali, selected 15 times for the Italian team, will not play again before the 2024-25 season and will miss Euro-2024 for which the Nazionale, reigning European champions, must still qualify. As with Fagioli, the FIGC took into account his cooperation with the sports justice investigation.
Duty of care
The sanction is accompanied by obligations of care to put an end to his addiction to gambling and participation “in at least sixteen meetings” where he will have to warn young licensees and hopefuls of the dangers of sports betting, specified the FIGC to the AFP.
For an infringement of article 24 of the FIGC sports justice code which prohibits a professional player from betting on football, Tonali was liable to a three-year suspension.
But since the beginning of this affair born from police investigations into these illegal betting platforms and revealed by Fabrizio Corona, a sulphurous “ex-king of the paparazzi”, the Italian Federation wants, to use the words of its president Gabriele Gravina, “ support” the players involved whom he promised “to never give up”.
“I have a duty, as a father and as a grandfather, to defend the dignity of many young Italians,” he explained recently. The affair in a country still marked by various scandals where players and managers bet on matches in which they were involved and could thus influence the results – which is not the case in this one -, throws a harsh light on the daily lives of young football stars.
« Golden Boy »
Fagioli thus admitted that he had started playing “to drown his boredom”. His gambling debts exceeded three million euros, which exposed him to threats of physical violence from betting organizers, eager to get their money back.
Until this affair, Tonali’s career was exemplary; debut in the Brescia first team at 17 in the Italian 2nd division, a first selection for the Italian team at 19, a transfer in 2020 to the prestigious Milan attracted by the elegance and vision of the game of the one who is quickly nicknamed the new Andrea Pirlo, before hitting the jackpot by joining Newcastle who offered him an annual salary of 7 million euros.
This was before the affair which will change, or at least taint the career of the “Golden Boy” of Italian football. And it’s not over: another international, Nicolo Zaniolo (Aston Villa), was questioned by the police during the last gathering of the Italian team.
If, like Fagioli and Tonali, he has little to fear from the justice system, which is mainly interested in the managers of these betting platforms, he too should receive a long suspension.
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