Italian federal prosecutor Stefano Palazzi has lodged an appeal against most first-instance acquittals in the calcioscommesse match-fixing scandal, including that of Montreal Impact forward Marco Di Vaio, for whom Palazzi had requested a one-year ban.
According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Italian police have provided Palazzi with the transcript of a brief phone call between Di Vaio and former Bologna teammate Daniele Portanova, who has been banned for six months for trying to fix a match between Bologna and Bari. The conversation could reinforce Palazzi’s theory, which is that Di Vaio failed to disclose knowledge of this attempted sporting fraud.
Di Vaio’s lawyers, for their part, argue that such a short phone call is meaningless in this investigation.
It is expected that the second-instance hearings will take place on August 20-21. The Montreal Impact do not know whether Di Vaio will need to travel to Italy or miss MLS action, a club spokesperson told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday.
