Bari: Atalanta defender Andrea Masiello has been arrested in the ongoing Italian probe into match-fixing, and eight of his former Bari teammates are under investigation. Bari’s last nine matches in Serie A last season are being looked into, including the derby in which Masiello’s own goal helped Lecce win 2-0 to avoid relegation after Bari had already been relegated. Bari’s match at Udinese in May 2010 is also under suspicion. [caption id=“attachment_263438” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Serie A has been caught in match fixing rows since the last few seasons. AP”]
[/caption] The other players under investigation are Bologna defender Daniele Portanova, Alessandro Parisi, Simone Bentivoglio, Marco Rossi, Abdelkader Ghezzal, Marco Esposito, Antonio Bellavista and Nicola Belmonte. According to reports, Masiello was arrested in his home in Bergamo in the early hours of Monday morning and taken to Bari. Two of Masiello’s friends, Giovanni Carella and Fabio Giacobbe, were also arrested. The charges are criminal association and fraud. Masiello spent three and a half years at Bari before moving to Atalanta last summer. Since the first wave of 16 arrests in June, more than 30 people have been arrested, including former Atalanta captain Cristiano Doni and former Lazio captain Giuseppe Signori. AP
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