Italian media company Mediaset has said it and its management "have always acted in full compliance with the regulations" after further details emerged this week about an investigation into the allocation of rights for Serie A, football's top division in Italy.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Infront Sports & Media confirmed that the prosecutor of Milan had opened an investigation against Marco Bogarelli, the president of the agency’s Italy division, and associates Giuseppe Ciocchetti and Andrea Locatelli.
The probe is in relation to “an alleged contribution to undue financing practices in Italian club football and an alleged manipulation of the administrative process” of Serie A rights over three seasons, from 2015-16 to 2017-18. The investigation is focusing on sublicensing deals between Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium’s parent company, RTI.
In May, police carried out searches of the offices of Mediaset, pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia and Infront, Serie A’s exclusive adviser for the national and international media rights, as part of the probe.
Mediaset said: "The process for the allocation of rights was carried out in accordance with the details outlined in the so-called Melandri Law and was organised under the control of the various authorities for the sector, after having first approved the guidelines and the bids, and subsequently having examined and approved the results of the findings.
"As is well known, the Melandri Law is specifically inspired by the need to ensure that rights do not end up in the hands of a single operator and to guarantee competition through a range of offers, obviously balanced, that benefit consumers," Mediaset added.
"Finally, given the hypothesis of charges relating to collusion between Mediaset and Infront, we would underline again that relations between the two companies have always been conducted in a competitive and transparent manner.”