ROME — Catania soccer club president Antonino Pulvirenti and six others were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fixing matches this year to keep the club from being relegated from Serie B, Italy's second division, investigators said. Those arrested including Pulvirenti, who also owns dozens of supermarkets and an airline, are accused of sporting fraud and match-fixing, Catania police said in a statement. Pulvirenti, through his lawyer Giovanni Grasso, said he was “certain that he can prove he was not involved,” according to Corriere della Sera website. Twelve others, including five players and the owner of a rival club in Messina, are under investigation for manipulating at least five games played in 2015, police and prosecutors told reporters. The typical payoff to rival players to throw a match was 10,000 euros ($11,226), police official Antonella Paglialunga said. Police used wiretaps and video surveillance in the investigation, she said. — Reuters
