The head of the Italian referees committee stepped down after being accused of sports fraud sports

Gianluca Rocchi, head of the Italian Referees Committee responsible for appointing referees in the Italian Football League, decided to officially suspend his duties and step down from his position in the first and second divisions, following his subjection to investigation by the Public Prosecution in Milan on charges of sports fraud.

Rocchi’s decision came in agreement with the Italian Referees Association, with the aim of protecting the integrity of the arbitration system and ensuring that legal reviews proceed free of pressure. He declared with full confidence, “I am sure that I will emerge from this case unscathed and stronger than before.”

The background to this scandal that shook the pillars of Italian football is due to serious allegations related to the 2024-2025 season, as Roque faces accusations of choosing referees “who are favored by Inter Milan” and putting pressure on video technology (VAR) referees to influence their decisions.

The investigations shed light on specific matches, such as Udinese vs. Parma and the Bologna vs. Inter Milan match.

These developments sparked violent reactions in the Italian media, which evoked the specter of the famous “Calciciopoli” scandal in 2006. The newspaper “Corriere dello Sport” described the situation as an “earthquake” that struck the referees’ committee, while the newspaper “Tuttosport” asked whether Italy was about to face a new “Calciopoli”, pointing to “the pressures on the referees through video technology (VAR) and the suspicious choices of the referees.”

The Calciopoli scandal is the largest corruption and match-fixing scandal in the history of Italian football. It broke out in May 2006 and shook the pillars of international sports, and led to changing the map of Italian football for many years.

For his part, Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abudi entered the crisis line, describing it as a “very dangerous” matter, waving strict legal consequences that may amount to imposing complete guardianship on the referees’ committee to purge the system of any suspicions of corruption.