Nicolo Fagioli sat on the bench at Reggio Emilia and collapsed.
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri had snagged him minutes after the future Serie A Young Player of the Year made a mistake at Sassuolo in April. His corner clearance landed at the feet of Grégoire Defrel and the wily striker took full credit to score. what the purpose of the game turned out to be.
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“As soon as I came out, I started crying in front of the TV,” Fagioli said. At the time, the 22-year-old’s dismay attributed the dismay to an individual error, against the tense backdrop of gambling at a club. whose place among the top four endings is already doubtful due to the consequences imposed as part of the Prism investigation.
But in a statement seen by The Athletic, Fagioli explained to the federal prosecutor of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) what he had in mind. I was overwhelmed. His “gambling debt problems” were eating him up.
Fagioli’s lawyer declined to comment when reached via The Athletic.
On Tuesday, Fagioli was banned from playing football for seven months and fined €12,500 ($10,840; $13,180) after violating Article 24 of the FIGC Code of Sports Justice. betting platform. The midfielder will still be able to work out with Juventus, and did so on Wednesday, as he undergoes treatment and network service, which will include five months of lectures at amateur football clubs, federal fitness centres and gambling addiction charities.
Juventus said on Thursday that the club “confirms their signing for Nicolo Fagioli. “
The fact that Fagioli did not bet on the teams he played for, Cremonese (when he was on loan for the 2021-22 season) and Juventus, and the point of his cooperation with the government, the leniency he showed in the plea deal he reached The violation of Article 24 is also punishable by a minimum three-year ban from “placing or accepting bets, directly or indirectly. . . on the effects of official matches organised within the framework of the FIGC, FIFA and UEFA”.
Fagioli’s tears at the Mapei Stadium were those of someone too deep. He had received threats of physical violence – “I’m going to break your legs” – from third parties who he believed would have to be connected in some way to one. from the illegal gambling platforms on which he had wagered money. He went into a spiral, betting more in an attempt to recoup his losses. His gambling debts to legal and illegal bookmakers amounted to almost €3 million.
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A year ago, he even asked his Juventus teammates Federico Gatti and Radu Dragusin, now in Genoa, to lend him cash (€40,000 each) on the pretext that he wanted to buy a watch and had not been able to do so because his mother was looking after her bank accounts. Unbeknownst to them, Fagioli took out loans to pay off his gambling debts.
On September 28, when Fagioli was indicted through the federal prosecutor of the FIGC, Gatti and Dragusin had still not recovered their money. While he intends to honor his debts to them, he does not plan to settle the ones they owe to illegal online platforms because, as his statement says, “I have already overlooked a lot of cash and because these are null and void bets in violation of Italian law. “
In hindsight, it’s frankly surprising to think that Fagioli was able to play with all of this in the background.
Fagioli was involved in 8 goals for Juventus last season and his form was rewarded not only with the Serie A Young Player of the Year award, but also with his first senior cap for Italy against Albania in November. Allegri had already pointed him out as a player for Mire five years ago when Fagioli, then just a teenager, was already generating wonderful enthusiasm within the Juventus academy.
“There’s a boy born in 2001 called Fagioli,” Allegri said with his eyes shining. “And it’s a joy to watch him play football because he was born in 2001 and you can see that he understands the game. “, he knows when to stand out, when to pass the ball, how to pass the ball. Watching him play is a pleasure.
When Fagioli signed on loan from second-division side Cremonese last season, he captured a WhatsApp message he sent to friends, stating: “I’ll take you to Serie A” after 26 years away from the most sensible flight. He duly kept his promises, probably able to bend things to his will.
GO FURTHER
Tonali and Zaniolo Betting Investigation Explained: Charges, Potential Penalties, and Next Steps
So how did we get here?
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In his interview with Giuseppe Chine, federal prosecutor of the FIGC, Fagioli drew attention to the free time that footballers have. The “thrill” of the game is a way to “beat boredom. “He recalled an Italian under-21 training camp. In Tirrenia, a beach hotel near Pisa. That’s when Fagioli started gambling. ” It’s (AC Milan and now Newcastle United midfielder and some other subject of this research into Sandro’s gambling activities) Tonali, a close friend who advised me to play. on the illegal site Icebet,” he said. I saw him play and asked him what he was doing. He told me that I could play because there was no record of the bets.
Fagioli then clarified: “I can’t say whether (Tonali) bet on football events or not and whether he had accumulated debts with the illegal platforms he bet on. “
At first, Fagioli was only betting on tennis. It has become a habit; one that only his mother and non-football friends knew about. He didn’t tell Juventus administrators or his teammates “because I didn’t think he was honest with anyone. “While helping Cremonese get a promotion, his mother begged him to move to SERT, an addiction clinic. It was feared that if news of his gambling addiction was revealed, it could hinder the renewal of his contract which, despite everything, he signed with Juventus in August 2022.
Fagioli had a few sessions but dropped out, thinking he could beat them himself. However, last September, he “bet in front of the TV on any sporting event he watched, including football. “
By the end of the month, he had racked up €250,000 in gambling debts and the grip of addiction grew stronger. Meanwhile, Turin Flying Squad officials began investigating illegal online gambling platforms. The research does not focus on football and basically targets venue organisers. However, any of those platforms commits a crime that is normally punishable by a fine.
One of Fagioli’s phones was confiscated by police in May and he was questioned by the Turin prosecutor the following month. In the meantime, he visits a specialist and undergoes treatment for his gambling addiction. ” I affirm that right now I feel better, that I have stopped playing and I intend to continue with my remedy,” he said.
The case of Fagioli and those of Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo, on loan at Galatasaray from Aston Villa, each with their nuances, inevitably led to a debate about football and gambling in Italy and what more can be done to help the players. Juventus, as Fagioli noted in his statement, “informed us that it was forbidden to make legal and illegal bets on football” since his years in the youth academy. Serie A also organises an Integrity Tour and summer clinics to teach players.
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“Obviously, informing them is not enough to create antibodies,” said Umberto Calcagno, president of the AIC, the Italian players’ union. “The formula has done a lot of things, but world football can’t solve this challenge alone. “
Gabriele Gravina, President of the FIGC, compassionate and understanding. ” These guys are like kids to me,” he said. “They can’t be used as cannon fodder. The way their names were published (via the famous paparazzo Fabrizio Corona) and left at the mercy of everyone are not the paintings of a civilized country. You can’t publish lists (of players) like that.
“Gambling addiction is a scourge of society. It’s not just the challenge of football. Figures from the AAMS (Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies, the Italian gambling authority) show that 1. 5 million people are addicted to gambling (in Italy). There are 1. 3 million registered footballers. It’s clear that some could be affected. Those who have made mistakes will have to be punished, we are racing to make it as transparent as possible. The punishment will be painful, but those who ask for it will be assisted.
“The FIGC wants to accompany these children in a healing process and we want to start a recovery process for these children, which is fundamental. “
GO FURTHER
“Some players bet on football. They know it’s breaking the rules, but they do it anyway. “
(Top photo: Daniele Badolato – Juventus FC/Juventus FC Getty Images)