Thaindian News

Rome, Dec 19 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Former Italian football star Cristiano Doni has been arrested by the police. The arrest is in connection with match fixing probe that is currently ongoing in the country. Doni is one of the 17 people who have been rounded up by the police in connection with the illegal betting scandal.

Police say the arrested persons are being held on suspicion that they collaborated with criminals in Asia and Europe to fix football matches. Italian investigators say they made the arrests in several cities around the country. The investigation has been ongoing for the past decade.

Prosecutor Roberto Di Martino told reporters that, “This is not the end - just a starting point… Let’s hope it’s a starting point in cleaning up the beautiful game that is football.”

He revealed that football match-fixing has taken a global proportion stressing that they take place in almost all the continents in the world. Doni’s former team Atalanta was the subject of the investigation as well.

This is not the first time that investigators have commenced investigation into match fixing in Italy. About five years ago, some of the country’s top football clubs were punished when various match-fixing schemes were uncovered by investigators. Juventus, one of the most successful clubs in Europe, was relegated as a result of the scandal.