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The head of referees for Serie A and Serie B has temporarily stepped aside after being placed under investigation by prosecutors in Milan for “sporting fraud”.
Gianluca Rocchi said on Saturday that he has decided to “suspend himself” from his role as the man who assigns referees to matches in Italy’s top two divisions.
“This painful and difficult decision … is intended to allow the judicial proceedings, from which I am certain I will emerge unscathed, to run smoothly,” said Rocchi. The video assistant referee (VAR) chief, Andrea Gervasoni, is also under investigation for the same charge.
Rocchi is accused, alongside other unnamed suspects, of having piloted the selection of Andrea Colombo as the referee for Inter’s match at Bologna in April last year as he was “liked by Inter”. Bologna won the match 1-0, thanks to a last-minute strike from Riccardo Orsolini.
Rocchi is also accused of having pressed a VAR official to encourage the referee, Fabio Maresca, to check on the pitchside monitors for a handball offence during Udinese’s 1-0 win over Parma in March last year.
Maresca on the pitch and Daniele Paterna in the VAR room had already ruled the incident was not worth a penalty. In video footage from the VAR room, Paterna can be seen turning away from his monitors and appears to say “it’s a penalty” after being spoken to by someone off-camera.
Prosecutors allege it was Rocchi who had banged on the VAR room door in order to pressure Paterna to change his decision not to review the handball, which eventually led to Florian Thauvin scoring the only goal of the game.
Sporting fraud is a criminal offence in Italy with a maximum sentence of six years in prison. The files will also be sent to the Italian football federation, whose own prosecutors could open a separate inquiry.
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