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Former Italian youth national team striker has already not played any games this season - the club player was disqualified for eight months for his actions in the "Serie B" match four years ago.
After the 2002 match between the teams of "Crotone", represented by G. Sculli at the time, and "Messina", an investigation was launched into possible match-fixing, supported by the player's phone conversations mentioning the possible outcome of the match.
Although the Italian Football League's disciplinary committee did not prove match-fixing, 25-year-old G. Sculli received a slightly lighter punishment for unsportsmanlike behavior - an eight-month disqualification, although he faced up to three and a half years.
The footballer, who became the European youth champion playing for Italy in 2004 and won a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics, still has the right to appeal, while the other four suspects in the case - Rocco Cotroneo, Leo Criaco, Nicola Salerno, and Raffaele Vrenna - were all acquitted.
G. Sculli started his professional career at Turin's "Juventus", but did not make it into the main lineup and was loaned to various clubs for the past six seasons. For two years he played for "Crotone", later represented "Modena", "Chievo", "Brescia", "Messina" teams, and this year plays for the "Genoa" team. The striker scored 9 goals in 25 matches for the Italian youth (up to 21 years old) national team.
The player is linked to the southern Italian criminal organization "Ndrangheta", which surpassed the Sicilian mafia in the drug trafficking business, headed by Giuseppe Morabito's offspring. In February 2004, G. Morabito was arrested after a police raid in the Calabrian mountains.
