Nicolo Fagioli sat on the bench in Reggio Emilia and collapsed.
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri won him a few minutes after the future Serie A Young Player of the Year made a mistake at Sassuolo in April. His deflected save from a corner landed at the feet of Gregoire Defrel and the clever attacker took full advantage and scored the only goal of the game.
“As soon as I got out, I started crying in front of the television cameras,” Fagioli said. At the time, the 22-year-old’s plight was attributed to his making an individual error amid the stress of playing for a club whose place in the last four was already in doubt due to points penalties imposed as part of the Prisma investigation.
But in a statement seen by The Athletic, Fagioli told the Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) federal prosecutor what was really on his mind. He was overwhelmed. His “problems related to gambling debts” bothered him.
Fagioli’s legal team declined to comment when contacted by The Athletic.
On Tuesday, Fagioli was banned from football for seven months and fined €12,500 (£10,840; $13,180) after he was found to have breached Article 24 of the FIGC’s Sports Law Code. He had placed over-under bets on games at home and abroad via an illegal online betting platform. The midfielder is allowed to continue training with Juventus and did so on Wednesday while he undergoes therapy and performs community service. This includes five months of speaking engagements at amateur football clubs, federal training centers and charities dealing with gambling addiction.
Juventus said on Thursday that the club “confirms its full support for Nicolo Fagioli.”
Fagioli spent a successful 2021-22 loan season with Cremonese in Serie B (Giuseppe Cottini/Getty Images)
The fact that Fagioli did not bet on the teams he played for, Cremonese (while on loan for the 2021/22 season) and Juventus, and the extent of his cooperation with the authorities explain the leniency he showed in his decision concluded agreement. Failure to comply with Article 24 will otherwise result in a ban of at least three years for “placing or accepting, directly or indirectly, bets on the results of official matches organized within the framework of the FIGC, FIFA and UEFA”.
Fagioli’s tears at the Mapei Stadium were the tears of someone too deeply rooted. He had received threats of physical violence – “I’ll break your legs” – from third parties he believed were somehow connected to one of the illegal betting platforms on which he bet money. He turned around and bet more to make up for his losses. His gambling debts to illegal and legal bookmakers amounted to almost 3 million euros.
A year ago he even got Juventus teammates Federico Gatti and Radu Dragusin, who now plays in Genoa, to lend him money (40,000 euros each) under the pretext that he wanted to buy a watch but couldn’t do His mother took care of his bank accounts. Unbeknownst to them, Fagioli was looking for loans to pay off his gambling debts.
When Fagioli was deposed by the FIGC’s federal prosecutor on September 28, Gatti and Dragusin had not received their money back. Although he intends to settle his debts to them, he does not intend to settle them with illegal online platforms because, as his statement states, “he has already handed over so much money and because it is null and void bets that violate Italian law.” “.
Fagioli and Dragusin train in 2021 (Daniele Badolato – Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images)
In retrospect, it’s honestly amazing that Fagioli was able to play in the background despite all of this going on.
Fagioli was involved in eight goals for Juventus last season and his form was rewarded not only with the Young Player of the Year award in Serie A, but also with his first cap for Italy against Albania in November. Allegri had already identified him as a player to watch five years ago, when Fagioli, then a teenager, was already making waves in Juventus’ youth academy.
“There is a boy named Fagioli born in 2001,” said Allegri, his eyes shining. “And it’s a joy to watch him play football because he was born in 2001 and you can see that he understands the game. He has the timing, he knows when to be unmarked, when to pass the ball and how to pass the ball. Watching him play is wonderful.”
When Fagioli moved to second division side Cremonese on loan the season before last, he took a screenshot of a WhatsApp message he sent to his friends after a 26-year absence from the top flight, optimistically claiming: “I’ll take them to Serie A He delivered properly and was apparently able to bend things to his will.
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So how did this come about?
In his interview with Giuseppe Chine, the FIGC’s federal prosecutor, Fagioli drew attention to the amount of free time available to footballers. The “thrill” of gambling is a way to “overcome boredom.” He remembered an Italian U21 training camp in Tirrenia, a seaside resort near Pisa. That’s when Fagioli started betting. “It was Tonali, a close friend of mine (AC Milan and now Newcastle United midfielder and co-subject of this investigation into gambling activities, Sandro) who suggested me to play on the illegal website Icebet,” he said. “I happened to see him playing and asked him what he was doing. He told me I could play because there was no trace of the bets.”
Fagioli later clarified: “I cannot say whether (Tonali) bet on football or non-football events and whether he accumulated debts on the illegal platforms on which he bet.”
At first Fagioli only focused on tennis. It became a habit; one that only his mother and non-soccer friends knew about. He didn’t inform Juventus executives or his teammates about it “because I didn’t trust anyone.” While helping Cremonese get transportation, his mother suggested he go to SERT, an addiction clinic. There were fears that if his gambling habit became known, it could get in the way of his contract extension, which he eventually signed with Juventus in August 2022.
Fagioli had a few sessions but abandoned them, believing he could do it himself. But in September last year, “I found myself watching TV watching every sporting event I watched, including football.”
By the end of the month he had accumulated gambling debts amounting to 250,000 euros and the addiction was increasingly taking hold of him. Meanwhile, Turin Aviation Squadron officials began investigating illegal online betting platforms. The investigation is not focused on football and is mainly aimed at the organizers of the websites. However, anyone who uses these platforms is committing a crime that is usually punished with a fine.
One of Fagioli’s phones was seized by police in May and he was questioned by prosecutors in Turin the following month. He is now seeing a specialist and is being treated for gambling addiction. “I declare that I am feeling better at the moment, that I have stopped playing and that I intend to continue my treatment,” he said.
Fagioli in action against Lazio last month (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)
Fagioli’s case and the case of Tonali and Aston Villa’s Galatasaray loanee Nicolo Zaniolo, each with their own nuances, have inevitably led to a debate about football and gambling in Italy and what more can be done to help players. Juventus, as Fagioli noted in his statement, “informed us that it is prohibited to place legal and illegal bets on football” since his time in the youth academy. Serie A also organizes an integrity tour and summer workshops to further educate the players.
“Obviously informing them wasn’t enough to generate antibodies,” said Umberto Calcagno, president of the AIC, the players’ union in Italy. “The system has achieved a lot, but the football world cannot solve this alone.”
Gabriele Gravina, the president of the FIGC, has shown compassion and understanding. “These guys are like children to me,” he said. “They cannot be used as cannon fodder. The way their names were made known (by the infamous paparazzo Fabrizio Corona) and left at the mercy of all is not the behavior of a civilized country. This way you can’t throw away lists (of players).
“Gambling addiction is a scourge on society. It’s not just football’s problem. Figures from AAMS (Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies, Italy’s gaming authority) show that 1.5 million people (in Italy) are addicted to gambling. There are 1.3 million registered footballers. It is clear that some may be affected by this. Anyone who has made mistakes must be punished – we are committed to ensuring that everything comes to light with the greatest possible clarity. The punishment will be severe, but those who ask us for help will be helped.
“The FIGC must accompany these boys in a healing process and we must initiate a recovery process for these boys, which is fundamental.”
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(Top photo: Daniele Badolato – Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images)