The scandal shaking Serie A takes on new dimensions every day and continues to shake the foundations of Italian football. It all started with an investigation carried out by the Milan public prosecutor’s office targeting a network of clandestine organization of private parties combining escorts, luxury hotels and the consumption of illicit substances, including nitrous oxide. At the heart of the system, a company based in Cinisello Balsamo accused of having set up a structured system of meetings between young women and wealthy clients, which would include professional players, entrepreneurs and sports personalities, including 70 Serie A players. The investigations describe evenings calibrated as high-end products, with dinner in prestigious establishments, visits to Milanese night clubs and five-star hotel suites. All orchestrated via an agency which communicated on social networks and which would have attracted hundreds of participants over the years. Some women, from South America and Eastern Europe, were minors at the time of the events and received very little of the amount paid.
In the reports and interceptions analyzed by investigators, the system appears extremely well-established. The organizers, a couple now placed under judicial supervision, are said to have managed every aspect of the events, from invitations to financial management, including the logistics of the young women’s travel. Some of them would have been housed directly in the company’s premises and paid for their participation in the evenings, while the clients paid amounts reaching several thousand euros for services described as complete. The authorities believe that Serie A is heavily involved with several players having attended these events without being criminally involved at this stage, their names appearing only in contact lists or investigative elements. The affair took on a massive media dimension, fueled by successive revelations and the circulation of information resulting from judicial wiretaps.
Very big players cited in the investigation
These are now the first names mentioned by the Italian press, in particular by the daily He Giornaldwhich are beginning to feed into the public record. Among them are well-known profiles from the Italian championship and other European leagues. Investigators are said to have identified key words corresponding to players like Achraf Hakimi, Rafael Leão and Milan Škriniar, all associated in the documents with clubs that played in Milan or with stints in the Lombard capital. Other names also appear in the revealed list, such as Dejan Stanković, Alessandro Bastoni, Raoul Bellanova, Yann Aurel Bisseck, Philippe Coutinho, Olivier Giroud and Jérémy Ménez. On the Juventus side, the mentions concern Dušan Vlahović, Arthur Melo and other profiles identified via nicknames or initials, while a player linked to Arsenal and the Italian selection appears under the keyword Calafiori, associated with Riccardo Calafiori. The list also extends to other Serie A clubs, confirming according to investigators the extent of the network around Milan. At Lazio appear the names of Daniel Maldini and Nuno Tavares, while on the Atalanta side appear Gianluca Scamacca and Matteo Ruggeri (today at Atlético de Madrid). Added to this are players like Marcus Pedersen, Christian Volpato and Cheickh Niasse, the latter being cited in an exchange where he allegedly demanded laughing gas during a party organized last November.
The investigators specify, however, that at this stage, no evidence confirms that these players actually used the services offered by the organization, their presence in the documents possibly being simple contacts or indirect exchanges, recalls Il Giornale. The investigations highlight that the network was not limited to Italian clubs. Players passing through Milan, sometimes from the Premier League or other national teams, would also have been in contact with the organizers. The name of Riccardo Calafiori is notably cited in this context, as is that of players identified only by nicknames in the listenings. For the magistrates, these elements above all illustrate the organization’s capacity to insert itself into the ecosystem of European football, taking advantage of travel, concentrations and the Milanese nightlife to offer its services. At this stage of the investigation, the authorities insist on the necessary caution, recalling that the presence of a name in the documents does not automatically mean involvement. But the media shock wave is already very real and continues to extend well beyond Italian borders.
