Italian prosecutors drop case against referees boss

Rocchi officiated at domestic and international level before his retirement from refereeing in 2020 [Getty Images] Prosecutors in Milan have requested that a sports fraud case against Gianluca Rocchi, the man in charge of assigning referees in Italy's top flight, be dismissed. The former international referee suspended himself in April after being placed under investigation for "complicity in sporting fraud" during the 2024-25 season. Rocchi, the National Referees Commission's referee designator for Serie A and Serie B, has always protested his innocence. According to Italian news agency Ansa, prosecutors concluded after a two-year inquiry that there was no evidence of match-fixing, saying they did not "identify a structured system aimed at interfering with appointments". It was claimed that Rocchi was behind the selection of a referee for an Inter Milan game as he was "liked by Inter". A video assistant referee decision not to intervene when an Inter player elbowed an opponent in another game was also under scrutiny. The simultaneous case against Inter has been dropped as well. Rocchi was also accused of pressuring a VAR official to encourage a referee to check on the pitchside monitor for a handball offence during Udinese's 1-0 win over Parma in March last year. The referee and VAR official had already decided not to award a penalty but changed their minds, it is claimed, leading to Florian Thauvin scoring the only goal of the game. Prosecutors have now forwarded the case documents to the sports justice authorities and the Italian Olympic Committee's General Prosecutor's Office to assess whether any disciplinary breaches within a sporting context may have occurred. Sporting fraud is a criminal offence in Italy and carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison. Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast