Rome - Italian police arrested nine people including the president of Italian football club Potenza SC on Monday in a match-fixing investigation. Prosecuting authorities said the arrests were on charges of betting fraud and membership of a criminal organization.
Those arrested are suspected of fixing a Serie B match in the 2007/2008 season and seven matches of the highest amateur division last season.
Giuseppe Postiglione, 27, is known as "the boy president" since becoming president of semi-pro Potenza in 2006.
He is believed to have betted on several games that have been fixed by his associates.
"Where it was impossible to fix a result in a quiet way, the gang rigged games with violence and intimidations," a police official said.
Postiglione appears to have cashed in 86,000 euros from several bets he placed in different agencies on the Serie B game Ravenna-Lecce, played in April2008.
About 20 other people are under investigation in the probe, which aims at unveiling ties between local organized crime and football managers.
