«Scam suffered». This is the first reaction of Massimo Cellino, owner of Brescia and former president of Cagliari, after the developments by the Federal Prosecutor against the Rondinelle, who risk a penalty – at the end of the regular Serie B season – which would mean relegation .
The "scam suffered" he speaks of would be from an alleged third-party company to which Brescia Calcio would have relied for the payment of contributions, through the purchase and sale of tax credits for a figure of around one million and 400,000 euros that Brescia would have paid to this company . In the meantime, the hearing before the Federal Prosecutor's Office for the Cellino club has been set for Thursday 22 May.
The risk is that of a penalty of four points, for irregularities in the payments of contributions related to the payment of salaries for December, January and February, which would rewrite the ranking. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has sent the closure of the investigations concerning Brescia, Massimo and Edoardo Cellino who now have two days to present a brief in view of the hearing on May 22.
In the event that Brescia were to be penalized, they would be relegated to Serie C with Frosinone safe and Sampdoria in the playout with Salernitana. The Blucerchiati are the team primarily affected, given that on Tuesday (following the 0-0 with Juve Stabia) they were relegated to Serie C for the first time in their history. The play-offs for salvation, for the moment, are suspended as per the decision of Lega B : the possibility of an appeal by Salernitana cannot be ruled out, as soon as the matter becomes clearer.
A choice, that of suspending the playouts, strongly criticized also by the governor of Campania, Vincenzo De Luca. «The sudden decision to cancel the Serie B play-off match between Salernitana and Frosinone 24 hours before is extremely serious» , he declared. «While waiting to know the details of this incredible story, we cannot fail to underline that whoever decided takes on a very serious responsibility in terms of sport, public order and the resulting tensions».
(Unioneonline/r.sp.)
