Italian prosecutors seek to drop sports fraud case against referees' chief

MILAN, Sept 18 - Italian prosecutors have asked for a sports fraud case against former Serie A and Serie B referees' chief Gianluca Rocchi and three other individuals to be dropped, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

Prosecutors in the northern city of Monza have requested that all charges against Rocchi, video assistant referee (VAR) supervisor Andrea Gervasoni and two other officials working in the VAR operations room be dismissed, the sources said.

The investigation examined allegations that Rocchi and Gervasoni improperly intervened in VAR decisions during matches, while the two other officials failed to recommend an on-field review of a disputed Inter Milan goal against Hellas Verona in January 2024.

Rocchi and Gervasoni stepped aside from their duties after details of the investigation became public in April.

Sources said prosecutors in Monza found no evidence that the conduct under investigation was fraudulent, or that it was intended to alter the outcome of a match.

They added that in some cases, interventions from outside the VAR room were intended solely to correct an obvious on-field error that was subsequently acknowledged.

A judge will now decide whether to accept the prosecutors' request and formally close the case.

The VAR case originated as one strand of a broader investigation by Milan prosecutors into alleged attempts to influence the selection or exclusion of referees for matches.

Milan prosecutors had already sought to close that strand of the investigation.

They subsequently transferred material relating to the VAR incidents to prosecutors in neighbouring Monza because the VAR operations room is located in a municipality that falls under Monza's jurisdiction. REUTERS