Unfortunately, the world of Italian football has been in turmoil since the national team failed to access the World Cup being held between the United States, Canada and Mexico. But the movement’s problems do not stop at the sphere of the FIGC, but also include a case that caused a sensation at the end of April: the one linked to the opening of a file for sports fraud involving the world of referees. Gianluca Rocchireferee designator at the time, decided to self-suspend after ending up in the register of suspects.
The origin of the investigation is a complaint presented in the autumn of 2024 by Michele Croce, a Veronese lawyer and Hellas Verona fan, after the match between the Scaligeri and Inter played in January 2024. For those who don’t remember that match, the final whistle which marked the victory of the Milan team 2-1, with a last-gasp goal from Davide Frattesi, was followed by controversies linked to the referee’s choices.
From Croce’s complaint a file for sports fraud was born which over time expanded to include two distinct strands. The first concerns the so-called “knocks”: knocks on the glass of the Var room in Lissone during Udinese-Parmato directly influence the decisions of Var Daniele Paterna on a penalty episode. The second, more substantial, concerns alleged refereeing decisions in favor of Inter in three matches of the 2024-2025 season: Inter-Verona on 3 May 2025, Bologna-Inter on 20 April 2025 and Inter-Milan in the Italian Cup on 23 April 2025.
On April 25, Rocchi ends up in the register of suspects and five days later he avails himself of the right not to answer before the prosecutor. A few months later the former designator decides to be questioned by the magistrates, assisted by the lawyer Antonio D’Avirro and Antonio Bana. In front of the public prosecutor Maurizio Ascione and the deputy prosecutor Paolo Ielo, Rocchi firmly denies all accusations.
If the three offending matches date back to the season preceding the one just ended, the latest addition to the file is from the 2025-2026 Serie A: Torino-Inter on 26 April 2026, which ended with a score of 2-2.
But what does the Prosecutor’s Office dispute? Rocchi would have designated Maurizio Mariani as referee for the match at the Olimpico Grande Torino, despite the discontent of the Nerazzurri club. The prosecutors indicate 21 April 2026 as a possible end date for the hypothesized crime, i.e. precisely in the days between Rocchi’s self-suspension and the appointment of his successor. In those days the conversation between an Aia manager and Rocchi himself was apparently intercepted, in which the former referee was informed of the discontent of the Viale della Liberazione club over the choice of Mariani.
Rocchi himself told the prosecutors about the goodness of that choice, claiming that designation despite the protests from the Inter world. So the same episode that ends up in the file as a new accusation, in the defense story becomes the moment in which Rocchi would not have given in.
What changes is not only the matches that come under scrutiny, but also the way in which the prosecutors describe the crime charged to Rocchi. In the first version, the former designer was accused of having «fraudulently accepted interference in order to alter the correct conduct of the competition». Now the hypothesis becomes more weighty: Rocchi would have acted «in competition with exponents of the Inter sports club and in agreement with them», who in turn would have acted «as a result of the preferential relationships with Gabriele Gravina», president of the FIGC at the time (who later resigned after Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, replaced by Giovanni Malagò). However, a clarification is in order: neither Gravina nor any Inter manager are currently registered in the register of suspects. Their name appears only in the reconstruction of reports made by the Prosecutor’s Office, not in a formal accusation against them.
In the meantime, the file is emptied of the chapter linked to the “knocks” of Udinese-Parma, previously contested as a crime against Rocchi, who emerged confident from the interrogation, trusting in an archiving of his position.
