{"id":14046,"date":"2026-04-27T13:51:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=14046"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:51:40","slug":"italian-refereeing-boss-gianluca-rocchi-suspends-himself-over-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=14046","title":{"rendered":"Italian refereeing boss Gianluca Rocchi suspends himself over allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Gianluca Rocchi, the man in charge of assigning referees in Italy&#8217;s top flight, has suspended himself following a reported investigation into alleged sporting fraud.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.agi.it\/sport\/news\/2026-04-25\/rocchi-indagato-frode-sportiva-36749516\/\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">According to Italian news agency AGI,<span class=\"visually-hidden ssrcss-i2z2ig-VisuallyHidden e16en2lz0\">, <!-- -->external<\/span><\/a> the former international referee is under investigation for &#8220;complicity in sporting fraud&#8221; during the 2024-25 season and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Italian Referees Association (AIA) has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aia-figc.it\/news\/comunicato-del-comitato-nazionale-aia-27331\/\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">released a statement<span class=\"visually-hidden ssrcss-i2z2ig-VisuallyHidden e16en2lz0\">, <!-- -->external<\/span><\/a> confirming Rocchi&#8217;s suspension following the launch of the investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The body said Andrea Gervasoni, the video assistant referee supervisor for Italy&#8217;s two top divisions, has also suspended himself, having been placed under investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rocchi, the National Referees Commission&#8217;s referee designator for Serie A and Serie B, said in the AIA statement: &#8220;This painful and difficult decision, shared with my family, is intended to allow the judicial process to proceed smoothly, from which I am certain I will emerge unscathed and stronger than before.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 52-year-old added: &#8220;My great love for my association and my sense of responsibility for the role I hold lead me, above all, to protect such an important group of athletes, whom I do not want to be affected in any way by my circumstances. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I await further developments, which I hope will arrive soon to clarify my position.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is alleged that Rocchi was behind the selection of a referee for an Inter Milan game as he was &#8220;liked by Inter&#8221;. A video assistant referee decision not to intervene when an Inter player elbowed an opponent in another game is also under scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rocchi is also accused of pressuring a VAR official to encourage a referee to check on the pitchside monitor for a handball offence during Udinese&#8217;s 1-0 win over Parma in March last year, according to AGI. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The referee and VAR official had already decided not to award a penalty but changed their minds, it is claimed, leading to Florian Thauvin scoring the only goal of the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sporting fraud is a criminal offence in Italy and carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gianluca Rocchi, the man in charge of assigning referees in Italy&#8217;s top flight, has suspended himself following a reported investigation into alleged sporting fraud. According to Italian news agency AGI,, external the former international referee is under investigation for &#8220;complicity in sporting fraud&#8221; during the 2024-25 season and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}