Nine arrests in Italy match-rigging probe

India's News.Net
Monday 23rd November, 2009 (IANS)

Italian police arrested nine people including the president of Italian football club Potenza SC, Monday in a match-fixing investigation.

Prosecuting authorities said the arrests were on charges of betting fraud and membership of a criminal organization.

Those arrested are suspected of fixing a Serie B match in the 2007/2008 season and seven matches of the highest amateur division last season.

Giuseppe Postiglione, 27, is known as 'the boy president' since becoming president of semi-pro Potenza in 2006.

He is believed to have betted on several games that have been fixed by his associates.

'Where it was impossible to fix a result in a quiet way, the gang rigged games with violence and intimidations,' a police official said.

Postiglione appears to have cashed in 86,000 euros from several bets he placed in different agencies on the Serie B game Ravenna-Lecce, played in April 2008.

About 20 other people are under investigation in the probe, which aims at unveiling ties between local organized crime and football managers.

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