The Italian media is awash today with stories about Sandro Tonali and the betting saga that has gripped football over the last few days.
Tuttosport (via PianetaMilan) reports on the ongoing investigation into sports betting on illegal platforms, focusing on Tonali who seems to be the player that has committed the most serious offence to this point.
Tonali admitted not only to having bet on football matches but also games involving Milan, the team that he was registered with up until the summer transfer window.
It will almost certainly cost Tonali his participation in the 2024 European Championships as per the newspaper, of course assuming that the Italian national team qualifies for next year’s tournament in Germany.
Even in the event of a plea bargain – as Juventus’ Nicolò Fagioli did – there was a small chance that he would escape a lengthy ban. Tonali revealed though, both to the Turin Prosecutor’s Office and to the FIGC Prosecutor’s Office, that he had always only bet on Milan to win.
This does not trigger a sporting offence because the bets in question would not have in any way affected his performance on the pitch.
Meanwhile, Tuttosport add that Milan are not at any risk while Tonali comes away with his image tainted by the affair. He has indelibly tarnished his image, and now he must pay the price, while of course getting the necessary help.
Surely, that could only increase his desire to see Milan win. And after all, the football federations are so keen to advertise the betting companies.
Wasn’t betting sponsorship in Italy stop since 2 years ago?
I recall that It used to be the case in Europe that your shirt sponsor couldn’t be betting companies but these companies have so much money they’ve obviously influenced decisions behinds the scenes. I can’t recall exactly but I remember a team either got fined or banned for it (betting sponsor displayed on shirt)
Yes, everyone is fine while the money from betting goes to them in the end, but they always have these meaningless public statements that something is bad bla bla. Why are you taking money from them in that case? Hypocrisy. In my opinion every adult can do whatever they want but football players still shouldn’t be allowed to bet as mafia would exploit it in different ways to fix matches.
What they should do is make sure that kids can’t bet and that there are is no advertising before and after games and similar stuff.
I never understood people who are asking to ban betting or whatever, you can’t be that weak of a person to need something to be banned. If you are you need to work on yourself, not get stuff banned because you will find a different vice. The issue is not with the places where you can go and do that, but you. You are the problem, it is your personal responsibility to hold up to certain standards and hold yourself accountable, not them or anyone else.
This still doesn’t explain how Milan wouldn’t be culpable if it’s discovered that the owners were aware of the offence, it’s still strange that they would readily accept an offer for a future captain…
What do you mean how? They sold a player that they knew could be banned and also did not report something they knew about. If you know about a crime and don’t report it, you can also be punished.
If they did know about the gambling It explains why the transfer was given the green light by Milan, they got £55 million and no loss of a squad player, it also means of course that Tonali knew Newcastle would pay the penalty and not Milan
We may never hear the truth about what was known and by who.
I think most fans of Milan and Newcastle were very surprised with the transfer.
Obviously Tonali himself knew what was happening as he was the responsible party.
If he was under pressure financially and in debt to gangsters like Fagioli, perhaps he agreed to leave to escape the pressure and to make more money.
He never looked happy since he left.
Either way, Newcastle and their fans will be very suspicious and angry about all this, and rightly so!
The fans were surprised but Newcastle management had previoudly revealed that the contact with Milan was already started few weeks before the media noticed it.
The surprise is that the club sold him and he agreed to go. That’s why everyone was trying to figure out did he want to leave or was it the club who wanted the money.
It seemed when the dust settled, Tonali had accepted the offer himself. So as many people are speculating as to why he did that. Given he took a pay cut to stay at Milan, It’s the club of his heart, he was an important player and had won the league and got to Semis of CL. He is also still young and could have made a move years from now. Why risk it all, when it’s going so well?
I think he felt the heat of this investigation coming and perhaps that of the illegal betting operators. So he decided to escape
Interesting take. Also I think you can eventually know if you get subpoenaed to trial and if NFC wants to go there. But I do recall how odd the transfer was. At the time it didn’t make sense for him to go unless Tonali really didn’t like the management or what they did to Maldini but this other angle makes sense too. I have a sinking feeling our management knew about it. These things don’t tend to be as secret as people think especially when you’re as high profile as Tonali