Italian Nicolo Fagioli, a Juventus player banned for seven months for making illegal bets, received threat to the owners of the sites where he bet because of his high debt and even asked his colleagues for money to pay them.
“I played forced in front of the television in any sporting event I watched, including football… even Serie B and Lega Pro (third category), although never Cremonese or Juventus,” he declared on September 28 to the Italian Football prosecutor Federation. Football. (FIGC), Giuseppe Chinè, the Italian media revealed this Wednesday.
The Fagioli era is almost certainly doomed to punishment of 7 months for betting on football matches, to which is added therapy of at least 6 months, the obligation to give ten public statements on the subject and the payment of a fine of 12,500 euros.
The player is now in the hands of professionals to overcome his gambling addiction, a problem that took on a new dimension in Italy on Wednesday, when local media revealed parts of his statement including finance of FIGC.
“At first, a football player, with a lot of free time, ends up experiencing the excitement of the game to overcome boredom. Over time, it becomes an obsession,” he said, according to the aforementioned sources. .
“I started betting in the camp of the U-21 team and I found myself in a state of debt-induced stress. I stopped sleeping. As time went by, I became more and more obsessed with debt. The money I owed continued which is growing and I thought of gambling just to make up for it,” he added.
“I’ll break your legs, they told me,” something that forced him to ask teammates for money.
“I asked Gatti for 40,000 euros (Juventus teammate), but telling him that I need to buy them a watch and my accounts are blocked by my mother. Dragusin (from Genoa) lent me 40 thousand euros in October 2022,” he admitted.
Fagioli, according to sports newspapers, suffered his worst moment in recent times between “March and April 2023.”
“During Sassuolo-Juventus I made a technical error and was substituted because I was thinking about my betting debts,” he said.
“When I was in Cremonese (on loan), my mother advised me to go to SerT (service to overcome addictions) to heal myself, I went there several times,” he noted.
Fagioli pointed to Sandro Tonali, who came to testify at the Turin Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, as the colleague who opened the doors to the world of betting for him: “Tonali suggested that I play at Icebet and he registered me through an account on the site in question.”
In addition, the footballer spoke about the specific amounts of the bet and his debts, which are worth it 3 million euros.
“About 110 thousand euros with ‘betar.bet’ and ‘specialibet.bet’, about 1.5 million with bullbet23.com, about 1.3 million with another illegal platform, about 17 thousand euros with legal and about 31 thousand euros with ‘ swissbet'”, he admitted.
The player, however, came out to defend himself on his social networks.
“I thought I would start by apologizing not only to Juventus fans, but to all fans in the world of football and sports for the naive mistake I made,” he posted on his Instagram account.
“Instead, I am forced to start with the garbage that the newspapers and the people expose only to expose myself to a thousand lies. Or better yet, just to get two more perspectives. I will speak soon”he judged.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
