EURO 2012:WITH EURO 2012 just two weeks away, Italian football was yesterday rocked by a massive match-fixing scandal that brings to mind the 2006 Calciopoli scandal right on the eve of Italy's World Cup win in Germany.

Indeed, this latest controversy arrived right on the doorstep of the current Italy team when five policemen turned up at their Euro 2012 training camp in Coverciano, Florence, at 6.25am yesterday to issue an “avviso di garanzia” (judicial notification) to Domenico Criscito, the Zenit St Petersburg and Italy left-back.

Criscito, who is under investigation on charges of “sports fraud” whilst a Genoa player two seasons ago, would appear to be the first major casualty of the scandal since he has been dropped from the squad for the European Championships because of his alleged involvement.

Nor is Criscito the only big named involved in this Cremona-based investigation which first began back in November 2010 in the wake of strange happenings after an Italian third divison game between Cremonese and Paganese.

Among the 19 people arrested yesterday is the current Lazio captain and Italian international, Stefano Mauri, whilst Antonio Conte, coach of newly crowned Italian champions Juventus, is under investigation in relation to the 2010-2011 season when he coached Serie B side Siena to a first division promotion.

If the Calciopoli scandal was essentially about a Machiavellian exercise of power and influence (by Juventus) over referees in Serie A, in contrast the current Cremona “Last Bet” investigation is essentially but not exclusively betting-related.

Initially, it seemed that the inquiry concerned only second and third division games but Cremona public prosecutor, Roberto Di Martino, yesterday made it clear that it also features Serie A. In order to make his point, Di Martino cited the example of the Lecce v Lazio Serie A game of May 2011, saying: “In that game alone, the winnings (from bets) were two million euros and to that end €600,000 were invested by way of bribes to the players”.

Essentially, three interlinked betting “syndicates” are accused of having systematically fixed Italian games – one based in Eastern Europe, one in Singapore and a third one in Bologna, Italy, featuring the former Italy and Lazio striker Beppe Signori. In the wake of information passed by the Cremona investigators to the football federation, both Signori and the former Atalanta captain, Cristiano Doni, were banned from all football-related activities by a federation disciplinary hearing last summer.

Like many investigations, this one started almost by chance, following a third division game between Cremonese and Paganese in November 2010 when Cremonese reserve goalkeeper Marco Paoloni attempted to drug his team-mates by slipping a tranquiliser into the team water bottles. Poaloni’s attempt failed but when five Cremonese players, who had complained of feeling unwell after the game, subsequently tested positive for the tranquiliser, Lormetazepam, then Cremona investigators discreetly opened their investigation, named “Last Bet”.

The major protagonists caught up in the investigation yesterday, namely Conte, Mauro and Criscito, not surprisingly professed themselves totally “innocent” of any wrongdoing.

Criscito, who is accused of having met with two Genoa “Ultra” fans and a Bosnian petty criminal just days before a suspect Lazio v Genoa game in May 2011, said yesterday: “That was just a dinner with Genoa fans after we had lost the derby. I cannot possibly know who exactly are all the people I meet, all the people who want to take pics alongside me or get my autograph.”

The position of Juventus coach Conte is rather different since he is not accused of involvement in a betting scam but rather in a piece of “political” match-fixing.

In particular, the former Siena defender, Filippo Carobbio, has alleged that Conte gave his tacit approval to Siena’s 2-2 away draw and 1-0 away loss to Novara and AlbinoLeffe in April and May of last season.

A draw with Novara suited both teams whilst the 1-0 defeat by AlbinoLeffe on the last day of the season was irrelevant to already promoted Siena but mattered desperately to their rivals in their (ultimately successful) struggle to avoid relegation to the third division.

Conte, whose computer and IPhone were sequestered by investigators yesterday morning, was described by his lawyer as “completely extraneous” to the accusations of “sports fraud”.

However, the Siena president, Massimo Mezzaroma, is also under investigation, accused of having “bought” two players from a rival team.

In all, 19 people including current and ex-players, one lorry driver and five Hungarians, were arrested yesterday.

Yesterday’s developments come just days before the football federation holds its own disciplinary hearing into many of the same allegations of match-fixing with regard to 22 mainly lower division clubs, involving 33 matches and 51 players.

In July, it is expected the federation will hold a second hearing with regard to match-fixing allegations in Serie A.