Italian prosecutors drop sports fraud case against former referee chief Gianluca Rocchi after two-year investigation

Investigation closed after two years

Milan public prosecutor Maurizio Ascione signed a request on 14 July to dismiss the sports fraud case against Gianluca Rocchi, the former referee designator for Serie A and Serie B. The decision, announced the following day, ends a nearly two-year criminal inquiry into whether Rocchi manipulated referee assignments to benefit clubs, particularly Inter Milan. In the request, prosecutors stated they had not "identify a structured system aimed at interfering with appointments," though they acknowledged "individual episodes of interference." The case against Inter, which was briefly registered under corporate liability law, was also shelved hours after being opened.

No evidence of a structured system aimed at interfering with appointments.

Rocchi, a former FIFA referee, suspended himself in April, saying he was confident he would "come out unscathed." His lawyer Antonio D'Avirro expressed relief but noted the cost to his client: "I've spoken to him and he is very pleased; now we will consider our next steps. I'm meeting him tomorrow to discuss the matter in detail."

The allegations and the Inter Milan link

Investigators had examined four matches, including Torino's Serie A fixture against Inter in the recently concluded season, over claims that Rocchi selected officials favoured by the Nerazzurri. Italian news agency ANSA reported that prosecutors initially believed Rocchi acted "in competition with undisclosed exponents of Inter" who allegedly used preferential relations with FIGC president Gabriele Gravina (who was not investigated). However, after two years of work, prosecutors found no criminal wrongdoing, and no predicate offence of sporting fraud was established to hold Inter liable.

Allow the legal proceedings to run their course properly, from which I am sure I will come out unscathed.

Rocchi stepped down as designator in April and was replaced first by Dino Tommasi and later by former top referee Daniele Orsato. Inter, which finished one point behind Serie A champion Napoli that season, was not implicated in any criminal conduct, judicial sources confirmed.

The VAR knocking incident in Lissone

A separate strand of the investigation concerns events during Udinese's 1-0 win over Parma on 1 March 2025. Rocchi is accused of banging on the door of the VAR operations room in Lissone and pressuring the video assistant referee to recommend an on-field review for a handball. The referee, who had initially decided not to award a penalty, changed his mind, and Florian Thauvin converted the resulting spot-kick for the only goal of the game. Video footage from the room shows one official turning toward the sound and mouthing "it's a penalty" after the knocking. That chapter has been transferred to the Monza Public Prosecutor's Office because the VAR centre falls under their territorial jurisdiction.

I fail to see how those 'knocks' could constitute sporting fraud; they were intended to correct a serious error the referee was making, certainly not to alter the match result. From a legal standpoint, I do not see how a case for sporting fraud could be established.

What happens next

Although the criminal case is being closed, the Milan prosecutors have forwarded the entire file to Italy's sporting justice bodies, including the FIGC prosecutor and the General Prosecutor's Office of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). These bodies will now assess whether the events, while not criminal, may still violate sporting regulations and warrant disciplinary sanctions. The dismissal request for Rocchi itself will be reviewed by judge Giulia Marozzi at a hearing in the coming months. Meanwhile, the VAR-related investigations involving other officials (Luigi Nasca, Rodolfo Di Vuolo, and Daniele Paterna) remain ongoing in both Monza and Milan.