Di Vaio faces charges, but we have yet to hear his side of the story

Marco Di Vaio PHOTO: FAISAL ZAMAN

Montreal Impact striker Marco Di Vaio has not been found guilty — but he has been charged with failing to report alleged match fixing activities in Italy.

On Thursday, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced more charges linked to a sweeping investigation into match-fixing. And, Di Vaio was named not as a potential fixer, but for allegedly not reporting match fixing activity. The charges stem form a May 22, 2011 Serie a match between Bologna (Di Vaio’s team at the time) and Bari.

Di Vaio’s charge is found on Page 12, section 37 of the FIGC report and, for the fairest possible reporting, we will reprint it in the original Italian and then offer a translation.

DI VAIO Marco, all’epoca dei fatti calciatore tesserato per la società BOLOGNA, ai sensi dell’art. 7, comma 7, del C.G.S., per avere violato il dovere di informare senza indugio la Procura federale, omettendo di denunciare i fatti integranti illecito sportivo con riferimento alla gara Bologna-Bari del 22 maggio 2011, dei quali era venuto a conoscenza ad opera del calciatore del Bologna Daniele Portanova;

In English:
Marco DI VAIO, at the time when the player was registered for the company BOLOGNA, pursuant to art. 7, paragraph 7, of C.G.S., for failing in his duty to inform without delay the federal prosecutors, failing to denounce the integral illegal sporting activities with respect to the Bologna-Bari match May 22, 2011, which was learned was conducted by the footballer Daniele Bologna Portanova.

If convicted Di Vaio could face a ban of up to six months. But we are a long way from that.

As for the impact on the, ahem, Impact? Di Vaio has yet to score since arriving as a much-ballyhooed Designated Player. We could speculate if he knew that he’d be charged — and maybe that was weighing on his mind? But, again, that’s speculation.

But the Impact always knew it was wading into dangerous territory when moving to sign so many players from Italy, which was in the midst of the biggest match-fixing investigation in the country’s history. From past prosecutions, we know that authorities cast as wide a net as possible, spraying charges here, there and everywhere. You want to get as many as witnesses as possible, and the best way to get what could be a hostile witness to cooperate is to charge him or her with conspiracy. Later, many charges will be dropped against those on the periphery, as the investigators and prosecutors close in on the major players.

What we don’t know is Di Vaio’s side of the story. Did he know? Or was he at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or, since we are dealing with a criminal network, here — did he know, and fearful of the consequences of going public? These are all questions that won’t be answered today, tomorrow or in the next week.