Tonali, Fagioli and Zaniolo: Lessons that can be learned from the Italian football gambling scandal 🤑

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In one of the most high-profile controversies in recent football history, three Italy internationals have been caught in the betting act. 💰

Gambling is pushed heavily in the modern football culture, despites the dangers that it brings. ⚠️

Is there hypocrisy in world football when it comes to betting? All the answers and everything you need to know about this recent case below. 👇

One of the most high-profile football controversies in recent history came to an end when Italian midfielder Sandro Tonali was handed his 10-month ban from all competitions.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the scandal, it all began in early October when authorities arrived at the Italian national team’s training base to question Tonali and team-mate Zicolo Zaniolo on recent media rumors that they’d been involved in illegal betting.

As a result, both players were released from international duty.

You might be wondering how they were even implicated in the first place. Well, the story actually stretches a bit further to early August. A controversial media figure known around Italy as ‘The King of Paparazzi’ claimed that Juventus midfielder Nicolo Fagioli was suffering from a ‘serious gambling addiction’ and was apparently deep in debt as a result.

Two days before Italian authorities came to the national team camp to confront Tonali and Zaniolo, a local Turin newspaper revealed that Fagioli was currently under investigation by public prosecutors for his alleged use of illegal betting platforms.

Now for the real tea. During Fagioli’s investigations in September, he answered truthfully to many of the questions asked of him, including how he found out about these gambling platforms.

His answer?

“He said I could do it too because it would leave no trace, so he made me register with my account. I placed my first bets on tennis and then football. I used other illegal platforms too, I don’t remember all the names because they kept changing every month.”

Yes, Fagioli essentially ratted out Tonali, which is essentially why the scandal has developed as far as it has.

It’s none of our business, but it does shed plenty of light onto the whole situation.

In this 27th edition of the Plei newsletter, I explain everything that’s happened so far with the Italian gambling scandal and provide my own personal commentary on the subject of betting in football. 👇

🗓️ How long will Tonali, Fagioli and Zaniolo be banned for?

Like we mentioned in the previous section, Tonali was given a lengthy 10-month ban. No football for nearly a year for the Newcastle man that has been huge for his side in both the Premier League and Champions League this season.

He was handed the suspension on October 26, which includes an eight-month rehab plan for his gambling addiction. During these rehab months, he will have to make 16 public appearances, likely meaning that he’ll give talks to youngsters and youth-rank players warning them about the dangers of betting.

Before Tonali was sentenced, it almost seemed as though he’d get away with at least a much shorter suspension.

On October 20, Newcastle released a statement, saying that they’d “throw our arms around” Tonali amid the threat of a year-long ban. He was still training with the squad, and was still playing club matches. Two days prior, they confirmed that the Italian was fully cooperating with the investigation and was actively going after resolving the situation.

It painted a promising picture of forgiveness for Tonali, but unfortunately rules were still rules. He was screwed from the beginning, mainly because it was Fagioli who was investigated first by authorities, and of course name dropped Tonali as the man who got him onto betting websites.

As a result of Fagioli’s decision to spill the beans, Tonali was pretty much destined for a lengthier ban.

Fagioli was the first to be sentenced; the Juventus midfielder was officially banned for 7 months on October 17. Tonali’s ban was handed out 9 days later.

But nothing for Zaniolo. Why? Because after hefty investigations, there was apparently no evidence that the Aston Villa attacker gambled on football matches. He allegedly only used these illegal sites to play poker and blackjack, and he’ll likely get away with just paying a fine.

You might be wondering, “so what did Tonali gamble on?”

Well, football matches, of course. He even placed bets on Milan when he was playing for them, which is a huge no-no. Thankfully, he only ever bet on the Italian side to win, which ruled out the possibility of match fixing.

We can’t imagine what kind of ban Tonali would’ve seen had he bet on Milan to lose.

😬 Hypocrisy in the football world?

If you’ve been following football for a while, you’re probably familiar with how prevalent gambling culture is. It runs deep in the veins of the community; you may not be involved in betting, but chances are, you know someone that is.

It’s no secret; the gambling scene is a mammoth of an industry, so huge that it grew to a market size of $267.5 billion back in 2022; and that’s just the U.S. alone. Globally, we’re looking at upwards of $449.04 billion.

And the number is going to continue to grow. $1.4 trillion is the expected worldwide market size by 2030. As you might expect, this makes gambling a major avenue of revenue for big companies looking to generate some extra cash.

It’s a match made in heaven; football clubs slapping the names of betting websites and apps onto their shirts as their primary sponsors.

If you’re unfamiliar with kit sponsorships and are interested to learn more about how they work, we wrote a newsletter about it! Click the button below to read it and come back here when you’re done. 😁

Of course, the betting companies pay the clubs to be on their shirts, which in turn brings these websites a lot more exposure and revenue in the long run. With the gambling industry being so rich, it’s becoming more and more common to see them pop up on the fronts of football kits.

The Premier League has become a hotspot for betting apps taking up the front and center space on jerseys. Last season, eight out of the 20 top-flight clubs had betting companies as their main sponsors, worth a collective $73 million a year.

For the 23/24 season, the numbers haven't changed. Here are the eight clubs in question:

• Aston Villa

• Bournemouth

• Brentford

• Burnley

• Everton

• Fulham

• Newcastle

• West Ham

The most probable reason as to why 40% of Premier League clubs have betting companies as their front-of-shirt sponsor is because back in April 2023, the league decided to ban them, a rule that will begin as soon as 2026. So expect to see these clubs maintaining these sponsors and more to join in on the party in order to squeeze as much money as possible from the companies before the ban comes into effect.

Fortunately, the rest of the Top 5 leagues have had strict bans in place for years now when it comes to gambling sponsorships. In both Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga, it is forbidden. No German Bundesliga club has a betting sponsor. Meanwhile, Montpellier are the lone team in France’s Ligue 1 with one.

But with the Premier League being as influential as it is, betting companies taking over stadium names and media coverage, and the fact that you don’t have to look too hard to come across betting ads and sponsored posts on football pages all across social media, it’s pretty clear that gambling is engrained into the beautiful game culture.

The only people really trying to hide it are the active footballers that gamble behind the scenes, because of the consequences waiting for them if they get caught. Nevertheless, many high-profile footballers have spoken out about the deep gambling culture in football, and many have spoken about their own struggles with gambling. Organizations like the Professional Footballers’ Association said they have seen an increase in players seeking help with their addiction.

Despite that, gambling companies have grown to be more of an aggressive presence in the sport in recent decades.

Which brings us to the point of this section…

There is some serious hypocrisy in the football world when it comes to gambling.

💭 What I think

My personal view on the topic is clear: the football organizations in charge of banning footballers for breaching gambling rules are nothing less than hypocritical.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily agree with betting. A player that places bets on football, let alone their own matches, should face punishment, as it can be a major distraction from their main job of playing and helping their respective clubs to win, among other negative consequences.

But it shouldn’t be getting pushed as heavy as it is, and if you’re going to allow clubs to have betting sponsorships, don’t be surprised to see players fall into the trap that you’re blatantly setting out for them.

As was the case with Brentford striker Ivan Toney. If you’re not familiar with the case, he was charged with 232 counts of breaching betting rules back in November of 2022, and was banned from all football activities until January 17, 2024 as a result.

13 of these bets were placed in favor of his club to lose when he was not playing. Another 15 were for him to score in matches he did play.

Obviously, in this scenario, there is absolutely no defending Toney’s actions. But take a look at the obvious irony. Brentford is one of the eight Premier League clubs with a betting website as their main shirt sponsor.

Whether or not Toney was already an avid gambler prior to joining Brentford hardly matters, because his current club - and the seven other PL clubs with betting sponsors - are visually encouraging the behavior.

What’s worse is that, just a few weeks after Toney was diagnosed with his gambling addiction and consequently suspended for eight months, Brentford renewed their partnership with the betting company.

A reminder that Tonali was banned for 10 months, and he didn’t even bet on Milan to lose.

It’s an unfortunate scenario for all parties, but it all points back to the broad daylight hypocrisy.

There are clearly two evils here, but the greater of the two has to be the pushed culture. Taking millions of dollars from these companies to put their logo on your shirt, just to force your players that aren’t even allowed to use the sites to wear them, and later to be shocked when the news breaks that a footballer has been caught betting.

Does it even get more ironic than that?

That’s it for the 27th edition of our newsletter! 😅

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