The first questionings have brought the first admissions. Footballer Filippo Carobbio and betting ring bagman Alessandro Zamperini were the first to face magistrates in the wake of the second round of arrests for match-fixing exposed by the Cremona public prosecutor’s office.

Both men, albeit with differences of nuance, admitted the events that led to their arrests. Carobbio confirmed he had taken part in match-rigging when playing at Grosseto and referred to other games fixed when he was with other clubs. Zamperini admitted to steering the outcome of the Cesena-Gubbio Coppa Italia game but denied any involvement in rigging the Lecce-Lazio Serie A game on the final match day of the 2010-2011 season. Those who were expecting the investigating magistrate Guido Salvini’s questions to be met with silence were disappointed. The bond of complicity between football’s corrupters and corruptees is already loosening.