Football: Bari fans arrested for fixing threats

ROME: Supporters of Italian club Bari, currently playing in Serie B, were arrested on Thursday morning for allegedly threatening the team’s players to lose matches in order to bet on the result, said judicial sources. Roberto Sblendorio, Raffaele Lo Iacono and Alberto Savarese, the leaders of three supporters groups, are accused of having threatened the players to lose three games – Bari-Sampdoria, Bari-Cesena and Bari-Chievo Verona – in Serie A during the 2010-11 season in order to win large sums of money on bets. Bari lost all three matches, but two players – Belgian goal-keeper Jean-Francois Gillet and defender Marco Rossi of Cesena – questioned as part of the Calcioscommesse match-fixing scandal insisted they had not succumbed to the threats.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2012.