A Cremona judge on Thursday said that games involving Rome side Lazio featured the most significant episodes in the latest developments of a major match-fixing probe. The judge cited Lazio and team captain Stefano Mauri in an order that limits the movements of the alleged head of a gang involved in international betting-related match-fixing, Hristiyan Ilievski. The 38-year-old Macedonian national, the leader of a criminal gang nicknamed the 'zingari' (the gypsies), turned himself in last month after being a fugitive for four years. Cremona judge Guido Salvini judge released him from custody on Thursday after "rich cooperation" with prosecutors, while ordering him to reside in the province of Piacenza.
The order said Ilievski had given a "detailed" account of his activities and of those of others, especially related to two Lazio games suspected of being fixed, against Genoa and Lecce in May 2011.
It added that these games were the "most sensitive and significant" as they involved "high level teams and players such as Lazio and Stefano Mauri". Mauri, 35, served a six-month ban between 2013 and 2014 for failing to report attempts to fix those matches but an Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) tribunal cleared him of the more serious charge of sporting fraud. He also spent a week in jail in relation to the case in 2013, but so far no criminal charges have been brought against him. The Cremona judge's order, which ANSA has seen, said Ilievski had implicated several players cleared or partially cleared by sporting justice. The Cremona-based criminal 'Last Bet' probe has already led to many other bans and fines for players involved.
Italy coach Antonio Conte, 45, served a four month ban while at Juventus at the start of the 2012-2013 season for allegedly failing to report match-fixing during his spell at the helm of Siena in the second tier in the 2010-2011 campaign.
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