Lazio captain Stefano Mauri has lodged an appeal with Italy's top sports arbitration court in a bid to reduce a nine month ban handed down for his role in a match-fixing affair.
Mauri was initially banned for six months on August 16 after failing to report match-fixing related activities linked to the Lazio v Genoa and Lecce v Lazio games on May 14 and 22, 2011 respectively.
On appeal to the Italian football federation's (FIGC) disciplinary body -- during which the prosecutor upgraded his crime to one of sporting fraud and called for a ban of four years and six months -- at the start of October three months were added to Mauri's ban.
Mauri, who lodged his appeal Thursday with the National Tribunal of Arbitration for Sport (TNAS), which is attached to CONI, spent several days in prison after being initially arrested in May 2012.
He was one of eight players initially implicated in an affair in which wiretaps were used by the authorities to glean evidence.
It was alleged the players involved agreed to try and help fix matches, thus allowing illegal betting rings to flourish.
Among the other players involved was Carlo Gervasoni, a former Cremona player who decided to collaborate with the authorities. He served bans of five years and then 20 months before hanging up his boots.
Source: AFP
