Mi Sports: An Italian referee was arrested by the police for bribing others to fix the game.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Italian police recently arrested five people, including Luigi Catanoso, a referee active in Serie C and the Youth League, and they were charged with conspiracy to commit sports fraud.

Reports revealed the criminal mechanism. Catanoso contacted and bribed other referees with a reward of up to 10,000 euros, allowing the latter to manipulate the game on the field by awarding unreasonable penalties or red cards to ensure that the game produced a specific number of goals to facilitate betting.

This investigation began in 2024. The Italian Customs and Monopoly Agency discovered an abnormal betting flow in a reserve team 2 league match between Benevento and Cesena. The game was enforced by Catanoso, with a total betting amount of about 41,000 euros, of which 219 of the 288 bets were on Benevento's victory, and the bets were concentrated in the Calabria region.

Prosecutor Giuseppe Borrell confirmed at the press conference that no players have been found to be directly involved. The gang's criminal plan was to tamper with youth league match results, but plans were in the works to expand to professional leagues.