Malta FA president Norman Darmanin Demajo said news that two Maltese men, brothers Robert and Adrian Farrugia, are being investigated by Italian police for match-fixing was like “a bolt out of the blue” but insisted that local football’s governing body will decide how to proceed once it had received official information from the relevant authorities.
On Tuesday, Robert Farrugia, the vice-president of Msida St Joseph who also represents the club on the Malta FA council, and his younger brother Adrian, a former player who for the past few seasons has occupied the post of team manager at Premier League club Mosta, were implicated in a match-fixing scandal, code-named ‘Dirty Soccer’, involving games in Italy’s Lega Pro and Serie D.
Felice Bellini, the former director general of Division One club Vittoriosa Stars who also had connections with Gudja United and Qormi in the past, is also on the list of suspects issued by the Catanzaro police earlier this week.
Reports claim that 70 people are being probed by the investigators.
“As usual, this came like a bolt out of the blue for us,” Darmanin Demajo told Times of Malta.
“It reminds me of the Norway-Malta match-fixing case.
“At this stage, our Integrity Officer (Franz Tabone) is in the process of gathering more information from official sources.
“It wouldn’t be fair on our part to act on media reports.
“We need to obtain concrete information about the case and we’re doing this through the Italian football federation (FIGC).”
The probe has exposed a network of Italian and foreign fraudsters with the two Farrugia brothers dubbed as “financiers” by the police but so far there are no indications that the multi-national ring had also targeted games from Maltese football.
Criminal links
According to reports in Italy, the police have secretly recorded 10,000 conversations between players, club officials and betting syndicates with links to the notorious Calabrian crime syndicate, the ‘ndrangheta.
The investigation dossier, containing 1,267 pages, focuses mainly on clubs from Italy’s Serie B downwards, although one Serie A side, Sassuolo, are also under the microscope for a suspect Italian Cup game, against Pescara, in December 2014.
“To my knowledge, at this stage it seems to be the case where matches from Lega Pro and Serie D have been targeted,” Darmanin Demajo replied when asked whether the MFA had been alerted to the possibility that domestic matches may also have been rigged by the suspects.
“It’s not nice that people with connections to Maltese football have been implicated but we have to tread with caution.
“We just can’t jump the gun. My message is... let us wait for the investigation documents as re-ported by the police.
“Once we have facts in hand, we will act accordingly but we need to allow the process to take its course.”
While reiterating the association’s determination to combat match-fixing, Darmanin Demajo issued a stern warning to those who see Maltese football as a breeding ground for bribery and illegal betting.
“As far as the Malta FA is concerned, there is a complete commitment to do everything in our power to fight this cancer of football,” Darmanin Demajo stressed.
“The creation of an anti-corruption task force is proof of our resolve to tackle this problem in a serious and robust manner as we now have all the stakeholders sitting around the same table and working together.
“We are striving to prevent this malaise from ruining our sport.
“Match-fixers will not a find safe haven in Maltese football. My message is simple... don’t mess with our football.”
Darmanin Demajo’s words echo the comments made by Carlo Tavecchio, the president of the FIGC who pledged to weed out the “criminals and tricksters’.
“We will rid Italian football of the criminals and tricksters,” Tavecchio said in an interview on Italian television yesterday morning.