UEFA vice-president and Roma legend Zbigniew Boniek warns against believing Fabrizio Corona’s reports of the betting scandal. ‘Nicola Zalewski assures he has never placed a bet and is totally clean.’
The situation erupted this week with Corona claiming that Sandro Tonali and Nicolò Zaniolo were under investigation for illegal gambling.
That forced the police to rush their proceedings ahead of schedule, leading to both players withdrawing from the Italy squad to face Malta and England.
Corona then named Roma and Poland international full-back Zalewski, but he does not seem to be under any kind of formal investigation.
“I spoke to Zalewski’s agent, who told me Nicola assures he has never placed a bet and is totally clean,” Boniek told Prawda Futbolu.
“This is an extraordinary earthquake in football, but we are also getting some wrong information here. First of all, Fabrizio Corona is being described as a journalist. And Fabrizio Corona is no journalist.
“This is a man who received a 13-year prison sentence for many different things, including blackmailing people. He was one of the paparazzi.
“I am not saying that there is no truth in what he says, but this can develop in different ways.”
Corona has been nicknamed the King of the Paparazzi and did indeed spend time in prison for blackmailing football players and clubs with photographs and video, promising to keep it out of the press.
He now seems to be working with an online gossip site called Dillinger News, which prides itself on being an ‘outlaw’ in media circles.