Prominent Players Exposed In Italian Betting Scandal The web of corruption that appears to have ensnared Italian football is gradually being untangled by official investigators, but each new revelation prompts a further sharp intake of breath.
Today it is revealed by the Torino and Parma magistrates probing match-fixing suspicions raised by unusual betting patterns for a number of matches last season that four Juventus players allegedly illegally bet on the outcome of last season's Coppa Italia tie between Atalanta and Juventus, which Atalanta won 5-3 on aggregate (the first leg finished 2-0 to Atalanta, the second was a 3-3 draw in Turin).
The players alleged to have placed bets have been named as Gianluigi Buffon, Enzo Maresca (now at Sevilla), Antonio Chimenti (now with Cagliari) and Iuliano (now at Sampdoria)
The betting scandal has come to light through phone calls intercepted by the Guardia di Finanza, a special police force that deals exclusively with financial crime.
The intercepted calls are alleged to expose the existence of a syndicate that used fake names to transfer money to phoney accounts that would be used to place bets which were sometimes as high as 100,000 Euros per game.
It was the size of the bets that first alerted the suspicions of the investigators.
Potentially the alleged wrong-doers, if proven guilty, could face fines, suspensions and possibly even jail terms.
For the most high-profile of the four, Buffon, his involvement in the forthcoming World Cup for Italy is now thought to be in jeopardy.
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