A new scandal has hit the Referees’ Association after a member was suspended for contacting referee Antonio Rapuano ahead of an Inter–Empoli match asking to help with a bet on yellow cards.
The conversation happened by telephone just before Inter hosted Empoli at San Siro on January 23 in the Serie A match Rapuano was set to officiate.
He was contacted by Claudio Defina, an official physiotherapist registered with the AIA (Italian Referees’ Association).
Rapuano immediately alerted refereeing designator Gianluca Rocchi, who sparked an investigation resulting in a 12-month ban for Defina today.
Defina had told Rapuano that he collaborated with a friend of his in placing bets on how many yellow cards would be handed out in a match, then suggesting they continue the conversation on a private channel using the Telegram app.
Rapuano immediately reacted angrily, hung up and blocked Defina’s number before alerting the authorities.
Defina wasn’t satisfied, then calling up another referee Eugenio Abbattista the next day and this time framing it as a collaboration with a company that analyses statistics and data.
But when mentioning that Rapuano had been furious, Abbattista imagined something was wrong and told him to stop there.
Defina insisted he was just trying to set up a new app to help bet on cards dished out during matches, but that excuse did not sit well with the Tribunal, who banned him for a year.