Juventus’ Nicolo Fagioli hit with seven-month suspension over breach of betting rules

Juventus player Nicolo Fagioli has apologized after being handed a seven-month suspension by the Italian Football Federation over a breach of betting rules.

The 22-year-old had five months of a one-year ban suspended, was fined €12,500 and has agreed to a therapy plan of at least six months with the aim of managing his gambling problem.

“I thought I would begin by apologizing not only to Juventus fans, but to all fans in the world of Football and sport for the naive mistake I made,” wrote Fagioli on his Instagram account.

“Instead, I’m forced to start with the disgusting things that newspapers and people write about me, just to put me in a bad light with a thousand lies, or rather, just to gain two more views.”

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Tonali and Zaniolo investigated

Fagioli made his international debut with Italy in November 2022 in a friendly against Albania but he hasn’t represented his country since. Fellow Italy internationals Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo last week returned to their respective clubs from Italy’s training camp after it emerged they were being investigated by the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office for alleged illegal betting.

Italian outlet La Repubblica report that on May 25, 2023, Fagioli spoke to his therapist about his addiction problem. Details have also emerged of the conversations he had with the Prosecutor. Fagioli reportedly revealed that he initially bet on Tennis but from September 2022, he had accumulated large sums of money to pay back to people and that is when he turned to betting on soccer matches.

By September 2022, Fagioli had debt in the region of €250,000, as he bet on Serie B matches as well as fixtures in lower divisions of Italian soccer. In September of this year, he had a reported debt of €3 million.

Fagioli opens up on issues

Fagioli has revealed that he also received threats and at one point, someone he owed money to threatened him by saying: “I’ll break your legs”. He admitted that he received money from team-mates Federico Gatti (25) and Radu Dragusin (21) to feed his addiction. He received €40,000 from Gatti, explaining that he wanted to buy a watch but his mother had blocked his account as she became aware of her son’s gambling issues.