Italian football is not in its first storm. For decades, the peninsula has lived to the rhythm of sporting triumphs as well as resounding scandals. Doping in the 1990s, the Calciopoli affair which shook the entire championship, or the sulfurous escapades of the former president of AC Milan and former head of government, Silvio Berlusconi, involved in the affair of the so-called “bunga bunga” evenings. Even the legendary stands of San Siro have recently been splashed by investigations into murky links between certain ultra groups and criminal networks. Every decade or so, Serie A seems to plunge back into a new gray area. But this time, it is neither a matter of arbitration nor a financial scandal which is shaking up calcio. It is a sprawling investigation mixing escorts, clandestine parties, party drugs and dozens of professional players which threatens to shake the image of the Italian championship.
The case, revealed by the Milan public prosecutor’s office, describes a clandestine system which allegedly operated for several years behind the golden scenes of the Milanese night. At the heart of the investigation, an events company based in the city’s suburbs, in Cinisello Balsamo, suspected of having organized private parties for a hand-picked clientele made up of professional athletes, entrepreneurs and celebrities. The concept, terribly lucrative, included a complete package that began with a dinner show in a chic restaurant in “Milano bene”, continued in the city’s most prominent clubs and often ended in luxury hotel rooms with escorts. According to investigators, relayed by the agency ANSA And La Repubblicanearly 70 Serie A players would have attended these evenings, spending a total of around €200,000 in this illegal system, reports Football and Finance. Some would play in particular in the squads of Inter Milan and AC Milan, but also Juventus, Sassuolo and Hellas Verona. For the moment, their identities remain hidden in the legal documents, the magistrates considering that they are not criminally prosecuted. But the scale of the system and the notoriety of potential customers are already enough to shake Italian football.
A large illegal clandestine network
The investigations carried out by the Guardia di Finanza describe a perfectly structured organization. At its head, a couple suspected of having orchestrated the entire system through the company Ma.De Milano. The two main suspects, Emanuele Buttini and Deborah Ronchi, now placed under house arrest, are said to have supervised every detail of these luxurious evenings. During their arrest, a precautionary seizure was made, amounting to more than 1.2 million euros. Drivers were responsible for transporting the young women to the meeting places, public relations managers selected the clients and partner clubs received precise instructions before each event. The exchanges intercepted by investigators reveal direct and almost banal language. “The girls you have at home, bring them to Just”we can read in a conversation evoking the famous Just Cavalli nightclub. Other posts mention meeting at the ME Milan Il Duca hotel, a five-star establishment near Piazza della Repubblica. It is there, according to investigators, that certain meetings took place after the evenings. Some women interviewed said that even during the period of confinement and Covid-19, this large clandestine system was still functioning. In its major investigation, the newspaper Tuttosport even talks about certain young, underage women in these evenings where alcohol and drugs were flowing freely.
During the wiretaps, the police also discovered the extent of the network of clients and workers involved. More than a hundred young women are said to have gravitated towards the organization, Italian but also Brazilian, Colombian or from Eastern Europe. Some were hired as simple “girls picture” responsible for accompanying customers to the VIP tables. Others accepted paid sex. A key witness, a former participant in the evenings, told magistrates that the women generally received half the amount paid by the clients. The rest was kept by the organizers. She notably mentions the case of a Colombian woman who would have been forced in 2022 to accept a relationship priced at a thousand euros of which only five hundred would have been paid to her. The young women sometimes lived in the agency’s own apartments in Cinisello Balsamo and had to pay rent for their rooms. The events were announced on Instagram via a page called Made Luxury Conciergefollowed by many Serie A footballers, as reported by Gazzetta dello Sport this Tuesday. Considerable sums were paid for their evenings and performances, then laundered by the company itself.
The court documents also reveal the excesses which accompanied these sports jet-set nights which could also sometimes be organized in Mykonos in Greece. In some hotel rooms or private lounges, participants allegedly consumed nitrous oxide, nicknamed “balloon drug”. A substance that causes rapid euphoria and leaves practically no trace during doping controls. “We are at Duca, we need balloons”can we read in a message relayed in the Gazzetta dello Sport And Sportmediaset. The organization responds immediately “I’m sending you someone”. In another exchange, a client asks if an escort can be found for “a Formula 1 driver friend arriving this evening”. But one of the most disturbing passages of the investigation concerns the conversation of a young woman with a member of the network. “Don’t tell anyone, but I took a test. I’ve been pregnant for over three weeks.”she wrote before specifying that the meeting dates back to an evening spent with a footballer whose name was erased from the legal file. Behind the lights of the Milanese night, the investigation reveals a parallel world where money, fame and clandestinity intersect. A universe which, today, threatens to cast a new shadow over the most passionate championship in Italy.
