The dismissal decree for the club’s position puts a tombstone on the investigation that rocked Italian football and which is now in the hands of sporting justice.
“At the bottom of the inscriptions, there remain hypotheses, sometimes suggestions, which, without any evidentiary basis (…), have not even allowed us to elaborate preliminary accusations” and to “usefully carry out investigations of all kinds”. It is a rejection without appeal that motivates the archiving ordered by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office of Inter’s position, entered in the register of suspects and at the same time withdrawn from the investigation in the hours in which the prosecutors closed the criminal file of the investigation which shook Italian football to its foundations in late spring.
No proof. On the contrary. The absence of supporting elements – according to the prosecutors who signed the club’s filing which was written on the basis of law 231 on corporate liability – leads to the hypothesis of sports fraud alleged against Gianluca Rocchi being downgraded “to the rank of mere inference”.the former designator whose dismissal has been requested for this crime, on which a judge will rule.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: ROCCHI AND THE MUD MACHINE
Inter’s position was essentially dismissed due to the absence of any support for the accusatory hypothesis. A clear stance which, consequently, also justifies the reason why the former designator Rocchi is destined to follow the fate of the Nerazzurri club at least as regards the main line of the investigation and that is the alleged (even more so now) activity to combine the designations in favor of Inter.
No evidence, especially after the “media diffusion” of the existence of the investigations which took place last April 25th, when the news of the sending of a notice of investigation to Rocchi became public knowledge: “It does not appear that investigations of any kind can be usefully carried out”, write the prosecutors, referring to the seizure of the devices (PCs and telephones) “which by investigative choice was not carried out previously” since the wiretaps in progress “appeared to support the accusatory approach”.
Arbitropoli, interceptions in the archiving papers
The wiretaps are the central point of the dismissal decree, 18 pages long. The Milan Prosecutor’s Office clarifies, however, that it does not leave the field of hypotheses or suggestions and that among the “residual” hypotheses there is the one that the alleged interferences of the former referee designator linked to the promise of a benefit, “consisting of career progressions in the referee system”. A theorem built in the abstract on the “existence of excellent relations between Gravina and Rocchi on the one hand and on the existence of an undoubted political weight in the league on the part of FC Internazionale, in the person of Marotta, in turn linked by good personal relations with Gravina”. It is a “suggestion” that “there is a specific sporting fraud, characterized by the fact that Rocchi’s acceptance of the interferences, to the extent that they were positively reconstructed, was determined by the promise of utility, consisting of career progression in the arbitration system close to possible restructuring”.
For the prosecutors who archived Inter’s position and requested the dismissal for Rocchi, it is one evidentiary basis “unsuitable for proving the hypothesis of specific sports fraud, which requires a principle of proof, even circumstantial, of a promise of utility, implemented by Gravina in agreement with Marotta towards Rocchiso that he would accept interference aimed at disturbing the regularity of the match”. A clue absent in two years of investigations: “The lack of evidence degrades this hypothesis to the rank of mere inference”.
There is no trace of wiretaps of direct conversations between Rocchi and Inter managers. Among these is a phone call that dates back to the period in which there was a head-to-head match for the Scudetto between Inter and Napoli. With Rocchi who on April 3 last year, addressing the former referee Dino Tommasihe said: “So, we have a problem. We have that week which is crucial for Inter, which has Bologna-Inter, the derby and Inter-Roma”. And again, “Among other things, they asked me (for the prosecutor, those from Inter) ‘but do you ever have Colombo?’ look at Colombo, you can take the next few days.”
Another pass. On April 3, 2025, Rocchi speaking with his right arm Andrea Gervasoni he says he has a “triptych of complex matches” referring to Bologna-Inter, the derby and Inter-Roma. And he adds “they would like Columbus, clearly because they really like it!”. On the same day Rocchi contacts Dino Tommasi: “So, we have a problem. We have this week which is crucial for Inter… (on the appointments ed.) we have to go a little day by day because the typhoon won’t happen but let’s say Napoli doesn’t win in Bologna and Inter beat Parma… they go to plus five and we can do it with a little more lightness, the championship, do you understand what I mean?” says Rocchi. But if Napoli scores three points and Inter lose or draw in Bologna “they risk being sucked in”. And to Riccardo Pinzani, AIA delegate for relations with clubs, Rocchi reveals what he will send Andrea Colombo to referee the match against Bologna, “but who the f…k do I send to the Italian Cup?” making clear the difficulty of finding referees who can not displease anyone. The match against Bologna will end with the defeat of the Nerazzurri and a tail of controversy.
The other strand of the prosecutor’s investigation Maurizio Ascionethe one on the so-called “knocks” in the Var Room to influence the decisions of referees and varists, has been moved due to territorial jurisdiction to the Monza court but the Milanese prosecutors anticipate the assessments, excluding the existence of fraud in this case too. There is no confirmation and “the existence of proof that the conduct was aimed at manipulating the specific tenders is excluded, which in itself constitutes the crime in question. Even the consideration of the context in which they occurred excludes any form of enslavement, of organization aimed at manipulating the specific tenders”.
All papers were sent to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office led by Giuseppe Chiné which will have to evaluate the possible existence of illicit behavior according to the sporting code which, we remember, operates according to criteria that are partly different from the criminal one. The fact that the investigation was closed, and the reasons that accompanied this action, cannot fail to have an impact on the assessment of Chiné’s office.
