Fabrizio Corona, the gossip columnist who claimed to break open a betting scandal in Serie A, has been found guilty of defamation for a false story that effectively ended Mauro Icardi’s Inter career.
This is hardly the first time Corona has been in trouble with the law, as he spent time in prison for effectively trying to blackmail clubs and players with photographs of their behaviour off the field.
He went too far in February 2019 on his website King Corona Magazine, when he alleged that Icardi’s wife Wanda Nara had an affair with his then-Inter teammate Marcelo Brozovic.
There was even a clearly fake audio doing the rounds on social media that purported to be of Wanda and Brozovic together.
In 2022, Wanda Nara already appeared in court to explain that the story had ruined the rapport between Icardi and Inter, promoting the striker’s transfer to PSG in the summer of 2019.
“Mauro was forced to change team, Inter told him he had to get a new agent, that he could no longer continue with his wife as his agent,” she said.
Corona was today found guilty of defamation, ordered to pay a €1,500 fine, plus €7,500 each to Icardi and Wanda, while Brozovic received €5,000 in damages.
It is not over, as Wanda Nara and Mauro Icardi (who is now playing for Galatasaray) are also taking Corona to court with a civil action.
Corona is appealing, claiming he was just ‘reporting on an existing story and therefore could not check the source.’
Meanwhile, the names that Corona announced in the betting scandal were already under FIGC investigation, whereas the others he mentioned have been exonerated and some are taking legal action against him.