The illegal betting case is growing in prominence in Italian football and yesterday, Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo withdrew from the national team squad as the police began investigations around their involvement in the situation.
While La Repubblica have stated that a total of ten players could be involved in the case, Nicolo Fagioli has already confessed to betting on illegal platforms and with the investigation ongoing in the cases both Tonali and Zaniolo, La Gazzetta dello Sport have looked at what they could be at risk of.
Like Fagioli, both the players will be at risk of a three-year ban. But it isn’t necessary that both players will be sanctioned, as investigations from Giuseppe Chine are still ongoing and he will verify if there are grounds for the violation of Article 24 of the Code of Sports Justice which deals precisely with the ‘ban on betting and the obligation to complaint’.
Paragraph 3 of the article states that those who violate the regulation will be at risk of a ban of not less than three years. But the sanction can be reduced if the player seeks a plea bargain or helps during the investigation. Fagioli has already helped out the Prosecutor and Article 126 states that if a player helps in the closure of investigation, the ban could be reduced by 50 percent. Article 128 states that if the player brings useful information to the table and helps in identifying other suspects, the Prosecutor can offer a bigger reduction in the ban.
When it comes to Tonali and Zaniolo, potential bans will apply to them too even if they currently play in the Premier League. The case will be presented to the national federal court first and if it succeeds to a trial, a request is made to extend the sentence to competitions authorised by FIFA and UEFA.Â
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Kaustubh Pandey | GIFN
