Newcastle United are confident that Sandro Tonali is clear from any fresh illegal betting probe in his home country.
Chronicle Live has learned that this is not a fresh investigation on Tonali and merely an update from an existing prosecutor's office investigation. Newcastle chiefs are not concerned by the stories emerging from Italy.
The £55million midfielder's name has been splashed across newspapers in Italy but he is not one of the players named on the list of players under investigation, it is the fact that investigators used Tonali's phone from a previous probe that have resulted in his name being included today.
Tonali has already served a 10-month FIFA ban - which was prompted by the Italian FA - last season and for part of this term. The news from Italy is not believed to have any bearing on Tonali.
But prosecutors in Italy have now opened investigations on 12 other players. Other stars caught up are Juventus pair Weston McKennie and Mattia Perin, Roma's Leandro Paredes, Atalanta's Raoul Bellanova, Torino's Samuele Ricci, Angel Di Maria, now at Benfica, and Fiorentina's Nicolo Fagioli.
The authorities are looking at poker games and betting on other sporting events on banned gambling platforms.
Italian media outlets ANSA and AGI report that players were rewarded financially for recruiting other gamblers to the clandestine platforms. On Friday morning, the prosecutor’s office reportedly arrested five people for "illegal gambling activities and money laundering".
And £1.3million was seized from a jewellery store in Milan, said to be the base for the operation. Although, none of the footballers listed in reports were arrested. Tonali had been given a suspended two-month ban after admitting to breaches of Football Association betting rules but club chiefs aren't concerned by the latest batch of reports.
Tonali has previously said: "I missed the last 10 months. I missed football, I missed the stadium, all the emotions on the pitch. But now I've come back and I've come back, I think, really well. I spoke with the team, I spoke with the gaffer. The gaffer was happy. I understand my mistake."
