The Italian Football Federation has not opened proceedings against Italian international Nicolo Zaniolo, who was questioned again on Friday by the courts as part of the investigation into illegal sports betting platforms, it said on Saturday. “For the moment, there is no information or procedural element which shows that he played (money) on football matches,” the Italian Federation (FIGC) explained to AFP. ).
Zaniolo, 24, was questioned for three hours by the Turin prosecutor on Friday. According to his lawyers, quoted by the Italian press on Saturday, the Aston Villa attacking midfielder admitted to having used these illegal platforms for “poker and blackjack games, not for football matches”. Zaniolo was questioned by the police during the last gathering of the Italian team before two important qualifying matches for Euro-2024, with his teammate Sandro Tonali, a gathering which the two players then left.
Tonali, under contract with Newcastle, received a ten-month suspension on Friday after admitting to betting on matches of his former teams, Brescia and AC Milan, when he wore their jersey. Juventus midfielder Nicolo Fagioli was suspended for seven months for betting on football matches, which is prohibited by FIGC regulations and punishable by three years of suspension, but never on his team's matches . If other names of players playing in Serie A have been cited in the context of this case, no others have yet been heard by the courts or are the subject of FIGC proceedings.