New football betting earthquake: the Bari prosecutor's office made several arrests during the night, including that of Atalanta defender Andrea Masiello (at the time of the disputed events he played for Bari) and entered another 20 people in the register of suspects. Among them, there are nine former Bari players, accused of fixing several matches in the last Serie A championship.
Masiello confessed: “I did it on purpose. When the result was 0-1, I took advantage of an opportunity that arose in order to definitively crystallize the outcome of the defeat for Bari and - therefore - to obtain the payment promised to me, thus realizing the own goal with which it ended the meeting".
The requests for pre-trial detention were made by the prosecutor, Antonio Laudati, and by the substitute Ciro Angelillis and concern, in addition to Andrea Masiello, Daniele Portanova (current Bologna defender), Alessandro Parisi (Turin defender), Simone Bentivoglio, Marco Rossi, Abdelkader Ghezzal, Marco Esposito, Antonio Bellavista and Nicola Belmonte.
In the register of suspects there are also the names of the Bari factotum Angelo Iacovelli, three restaurateurs - Nico De Tullio, Onofrio De Benedictis and Francesco De Napoli - considered accomplices of the players, bettors and their friends: Arianna Pinto, Giovanni Carella, Fabio Giacobbe, the 'gypsy' Victor Kondic, Leonardo Picci and the Albanian Armand Caca. The matches under the scrutiny of the investigators are the last nine of the 2010/2011 football championship, in particular Bari-Lecce, Palermo-Bari, Bologna-Bari, Bari-Chievo and Bari-Sampdoria. There is also Udinese-Bari in May 2010, one of the last matches in the 2009/2010 championship.
The disputed offense is criminal association aimed at defrauding sports competitions. More details will be disclosed by the Chief Prosecutor of the Bari Republic, Antonio Laudati, during a press conference to be held today at the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri of Bari, at 12.
