Task force monitoring Operation Dirty Soccer developments in Malta

The parliamentary secretariat for sport and the Malta Council for Sport said they are following developments related to the Maltese connection to an international illegal football betting syndicated that was busted by Italian police earlier this week.

In a statement, the government that the home affairs ministry and the Malta Football Association were working in a specially set-up task force to protect the integrity of the game and fight corruption in sport.

The task force will be proposing measures to the government in its bid to fight corruption in sport.

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The former president of Msida St Joseph, Robert Farrugia, and his brother Adrian, were named as two financiers of illegal betting in the Italian sting dubbed Operation ‘Dirty Soccer’ by Catanzaro police.

Robert Farrugia, 45, and Mosta team manager Adrian Farrugia, 34, were names alongside 50 others, including Vittoriosa Stars’ Italian head coach Arturo di Napoli and the former Italian director of Gudja United, Felice Bellini.

Bellini, who arrived in Malta in 2013, originally formed part of an initiative to bring Italian players to Qormi United in a collaboration agreement. He then moved to First Division club Vittoriosa Stars as director-general, where his compatriot and former Napoli and Inter striker Arturo di Napoli serves as head coach.

Italian daily La Repubblica reported that they formed part of a syndicate of people traditionally beyond suspicion – football players, club presidents and managers, and businessmen from Serbia, Malta, China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Italy – who would bet on low-tier games of the Italian Serie D and Lega pro (formerly Serie C), and also second division Serie B games.

They were accused of having delinquent association for sporting fraud, and in some cases having associated with organised crime, particularly southern Italy’s notorious Ndrangheta.
The investigation in fact started from a police interest in Ndrangheta captain Pietro Iannazzo, who staked bets on the Neapolis football club, which eventually led them to the international syndicate.

The Catanzaro special mobile unit stumbled on a multi-million euro network of illegal betting where teams were designated to lose, so that they could reap the most out of football bets.

Investigators suspect 28 matches from the ongoing season were rigged and the suspected financiers being investigated include Serbian, Maltese and Albanian nationals. In the latest scandal, investigators said there were two different criminal gangs, one to set up the games in Lega Pro and the other those in Serie D.