According to reports from AGI, the Serie A and B referee designator Gianluca Rocchi is under investigation for ‘complicity in sports fraud’.
“The investigation conducted by Milan public prosecutor Maurizio Ascione would refer to the 2024-2025 season and, in particular, to some incidents that occurred in the VAR room in Lissone during matches. The designator allegedly exerted pressure on VAR and AVAR,” writes La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Among the incidents under the investigators’ scrutiny is also a match involving the Nerazzurri. It concerns Inter-Verona on January 8, 2024.
“Last night, according to what AGI has learned, he was served a notice of investigation. The inquiry, centered on the 2024-2025 season and conducted by Milan public prosecutor Maurizio Ascione, has been simmering since last summer under the rubble of the Italian football crisis and is exploring all its components, from referees to the FIGC to clubs and even sports justice,” reads the article by Manuela D’Alessandro.
“In a summons sent in recent months to one of the AVARs under investigation for complicity in sports fraud, reference is made to the match Inter-Verona on January 8, 2024. The questionable incident is an elbow by the Nerazzurri defender Alessandro Bastoni to the Gialloblu player Duda.
The conversation between Michael Fabbri, referee, and Luigi Nasca, at the VAR, was revealed in full at the Coverciano meeting: “There’s someone on the ground. No, wait. Blow the whistle, blow the whistle, but blow the whistle for heaven’s sake. I want to see what happened. It all starts here, maybe you can see the player falling, I’ll leave this camera,” says Nasca, to which Fabbri replies: “I said that he (Duda, ed.) got up, looked at me and then went back down. He gets up, looks at me and then goes back down, that’s cunning!”
While Fabbri is surrounded by Verona players, Nasca reviews the footage of the contact between Bastoni and Duda and decides to validate Frattesi’s decisive goal: “Let me see it all again. Flags, anything? No, no flag (to signal potential offside, ed.). Go, go, go, go. Now let me see it again. Everything is regular here. Let me see the shot. Good, go, go fast. Regular. Let me see it just for a moment. Michael, it’s Gigi: regular goal, regular goal.”
The accused, “in complicity with others,” allegedly failed to call an ‘On field review’ at the moment of Bastoni’s intentional foul committed in an area of the field far from the play, which was immediately followed by the home team’s goal, decisive for the final result.” Several matches from last season’s tournament are under review by investigators.”
It will be essential to await the developments of the investigation to clarify any responsibilities.
