Allegations of ‘sporting fraud’ against Gianluca Rocchi arrive at an especially messy moment for Italian football
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his could have been the weekend when Inter sealed the Serie A title. Instead, it became one overshadowed by a refereeing scandal. On Saturday, Agenzia Italia broke the news that Gianluca Rocchi, the man responsible for designating match officials for Serie A and Serie B, was under investigation for “complicity in sporting fraud”. He suspended himself from his duties for the National Referees’ Committee for Italy’s top two divisions (CAN) the same day.
So did Andrea Gervasoni, the video assistant referee system (VAR) supervisor for the same body and implicated in the same investigation. Rocchi released a statement through the Italian Referees’ Association saying he wanted to minimise disruption to peers while the legal action took its course, but that he was confident he would “emerge unscathed and stronger than before”. Lawyers for both men suggested they were still unclear about the exact nature of the charges.
Twenty years on from the Calciopoli scandal that led to Juventus being stripped of two Serie A titles and relegated, as well as five other clubs receiving points deductions, Italian football can hardly avoid questions about history possibly repeating. Back then, wiretaps revealed a system of back-channel lobbying to influence refereeing appointments. A headline-grabbing detail from the Milan prosecutor’s latest investigation is the claim Rocchi agreed to assign specific officials for certain Inter games late last season.
