Probe widens on Bari's suspicious matches

A large number of former and current footballers of Bari are suspected in a match-fixing investigation on games played in the past seasons.

Local media reported Wednesday that prosecutors in the seaside town are focusing on Salernitana v Bari, a Serie B game played in May 2009, and Bari v Treviso, played a year earlier in the same division.

Investigators have questioned all the players, about 20, who played with Bari in 2008 and 2009.

Among them are international defender Andrea Ranocchia, now at Inter Milan, Torino's Belgian goalkeeper Jean Francois Gillet and Paulo Barreto of Udinese.

There seems to be no involvement by coach Antonio Conte, at Bari from 2007 to 2009. The current manager of champions Juventus was suspended for 10 months in August for not reporting a match-fixing attempt when he was coaching Siena in 2010.

The Italian football federation FIGC last week reduced his ban to four months.

It is alleged that the footballers shared a bribe of about 250,000 euros (321,000 dollars) from players of Salernitana, who strived to avoid relegation in the final part of the 2008-2009 season, while Bari had secured promotion.

Some Bari footballers are believed to also have gained money from punters for advising them to place "over" bets - more than two total goals scored - on the game that Salernitana won 3-2.

Other games that Bari played between 2010 and 2011 have already been investigated, leading to the sentencing earlier this month of defender Andrea Masiello to one year and 10 months.

His prison term was suspended, while FIGC banned him for two years and two months.

Antonio Manganelli, the head of Italy's Polizia force, said Tuesday that further dramatic evidence was to be expected from ongoing probes.

Investigations into match-fixing linked to betting have begun in 2011 in Bari, Cremona, Genoa and Napoli.Author: Alberto Cagliano.