Andrea Maseillo, the former Bari defender and a central figure in Calciopoli2
As many of us have heard, Calciopoli 2 is vending its way through the Serie in warp speed. In the eye of the storm, Andrea Massiello, the former central defender for Bari who has been arrested on charges of match fixing. Eleven others including many of Masiello’s Bari team mates have also been arrested in the police dragnet. The match that sparked the current investigation was a 0-2 loss to Lecce that staved off relegation for that club. Masiello scored an own goal in that match and later confessed being paid 180,000 euros. Bari by that time was relegated in the 2010-11 season.
The investigation has now widened to a number of matches that include some very big names in the Serie, including AC Milan and AS Roma.
Specifically, five matches involving Bari vs Milan (1-1), Bari vs Chievo (1-2), Bari vs Sampdoria (0-1), Roma vs Bari (3-2), Palermo vs Bari (2-1) all played in the last few months of the Serie are the focus of the prosecutors office at Cremona.
The Bari vs Milan match is receiving close scrutiny after investigators intercepted a call to former player Antonio Bellavista (one of those arrested) on March 11th, 2011, two days before the Milan match from an unidentified man comparing notes on their success in contacting Bari players to drive the end result in that fixture. In the Roma vs Bari encounter, Angelo Iacovelli, another Bari player under arrest, recalls he was at a meeting in Masiello’s house in which he was offered money by Bellavista and his accomplice De Tullio, days before the Roma match. Bari lost that match, 2-3.
Milan won their first Scudetto in seven years. Roma made it to the Europa League. Calciopoli2 could claim some very big names and leave the FIGC with serious egg on their face for the second time in five years. These are the sort of scandals that make Italy the most corrupt Western European country.