Football, Foggia first sports club hit by anti-mafia code: 4 arrests, 52 daspo issued

An extortion campaign involving intimidation with the aim of bringing about a forced sale of the Calcio Foggia club for less than market value was allegedly carried out by a group of ultras, a direct expression of local organised crime. This has been ascertained by the investigations conducted by the Bari District Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office, which led to the execution of a preventive measure of judicial administration against the sports club, the arrest of four people held responsible for attempted extortion against the club's president, and the issuance of 52 daspo (arrest warrant).

The investigation has shown that some ultras groups of 'direct expression of organised crime in Foggia' planned and carried out a long campaign of intimidation and violent actions aimed at forcing the owner of the sports club Foggia Calcio 1920 to resign and cede control of the club. The pressure was aimed at obtaining the management of the sponsorship system and accreditation for stadium admissions, as well as control over recruitment and professional relationships within the sports club.

The extortion campaign was aimed at bringing about a forced sale of the company for a value far below the market value, carried out through a 'staggering' series of extremely serious acts of intimidation, committed against the company's players, as well as the company's governance and president, also with the use of weapons and explosive material and with typically Mafia-like methods, leveraging the notorious criminal influence of the 'Foggiana Company'.

A police note explains that the criminal strategy 'was behind the series of criminal acts that began on June 18, 2023, with the explosion of gunshots aimed at the car of the then captain of Calcio Foggia 1920, and culminated with the placement of a rudimentary and dangerous explosive device immediately next to the car of Emanuele Canonico, then vice-president of the company Foggia Calcio 1920, parked inside the headquarters of the construction company "Cn Costruzioni Generali s.p.a." in Modugno. In the same context, two arson attacks were foiled against cars in use by the top management of Foggia Calcio 1920 (in one case, a minor was identified in flagrante delicto as one of the perpetrators of the criminal project).

Interceptions and searches over time ordered by the Judicial Authority have allowed, also through the seizure of computer material and documents (including even a handwritten sheet, found in the possession of one of the suspects, on which the criminal objectives of the criminal actions had been cryptically reported), to acquire important circumstantial elements confirming the validity of the charges formulated for precautionary purposes, as these and other criminal episodes can be traced back to a single direction, aimed at destabilising the company's management structure and at negatively conditioning the same sports activities, based on the use of intimidating force of one of the 'batteries' in which, as is well known, the Mafia association of the 'Società Foggiana' is divided, evident in criminal acts carried out both against the company management and against the players. Based on these assumptions, the Court of Bari has accepted the proposal, formulated jointly by the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-terrorism Prosecutor, the Prosecutor of the Republic of Bari and the Questore of Foggia, for the adoption of a measure of judicial administration of the company Calcio Foggia 1920, necessary to remove the relative activities from the heavy criminal conditioning exercised on it, even resorting to violent forms typically expressive of mafia methods and interests.