The two Italian international players were excluded by their selection. They are in fact the target of an investigation into illicit sports betting.
Italian internationals Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo have been excluded from the national team gathering after the opening of an investigation into illicit sports betting, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said on Thursday.
In a press release, the federation specifies that midfielder Tonali and striker Zaniolo, who play in England, respectively at Newcastle and Aston Villa, were informed of the investigation targeting them at the Azzurri training center in Coverciano. Both players will miss Italy’s Euro 2024 qualifiers against Malta on Saturday and England on Tuesday.
“In this situation the two players are not able to face the commitments of the days to come”, writes the Italian Federation which “authorizes them to return to their respective clubs”. The FIGC announced on Wednesday that it had opened an investigation in August to determine whether Juventus Turin player Nicolo Fagioli made sports bets. He is suspected of having used several different profiles to place bets on clandestine platforms.
