Fonbet breaks its silence on Pirlo affair as fallout claims federation leadership | OneFootball

Andrea Pirlo was days away from being named Italy’s head coach. Then a sponsorship deal with a Russian bookmaker ended his candidacy within 48 hours of it becoming public.

The 47-year-old, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006 and a two-time Champions League winner as a player, had been the leading contender to take the national team into the 2030 World Cup. His appointment was expected to be confirmed in Rome on Monday 27 July. It never was.

The reason was a contract most people had not heard of: Pirlo had been a global ambassador for Fonbet, Russia’s largest bookmaker, since October 2025. Once the tie-up surfaced in the Italian press, the nomination did not survive the weekend.

Now Fonbet has spoken out. In a statement provided exclusively to Casinos.com , the company has defended Pirlo and accused Western media of manufacturing a political scandal around him.

It comes at the end of a week that also brought resignations at the top of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), a letter of support from Russia’s ambassador to Italy, and a decision by regulators to block the bookmaker’s websites in the country. Two new appointments, Roberto Mancini as head coach and Claudio Ranieri as technical director, have already followed.

Fonbet’s statement runs on two tracks: a defence of its ambassador, and an attack on the international press.

“It is with great regret that we observe the controversy surrounding Andrea’s career,” the company said. It added that Pirlo had “dedicated his entire life to football and his love for his country.”

Fonbet then turned on the coverage itself. It said it was “concerned by the amount of lies and misinformation being spread by Western media.” The episode, it added, showed “politics being used in sport to achieve selfish ends.”

How the candidacy collapsed

Pirlo had been backed above all by Paolo Maldini, appointed FIGC technical director on 11 July under new president Giovanni Malagò, with Leonardo advising alongside him. His signature was expected in Rome on Monday 27 July.

At the time, Pirlo was managing United FC, a second-division club in Dubai. Its owner, Russian billionaire Sergey Lomakin, has been linked to Fonbet as a shareholder in Italian reporting.

The Fonbet tie-up surfaced in the Italian press on Friday 24 July. Over the weekend that followed, lawmakers from several parties objected to the Russian link. By Monday, Pirlo was no longer the candidate. He confirmed the news himself via Instagram, and rejected any political reading of the deal.

“Attributing political significance to this means attributing to me beliefs I have never expressed,” he wrote.

Resignations, then a letter from Moscow

The collapse triggered a chain reaction. Maldini and Leonardo resigned just 16 days into their tenure, delivering the news to Malagò in person. Italy’s sport minister, Andrea Abodi, called the withdrawal “a piece of news that speaksfor itself.”

He criticised the federation’s handling of the episode. Russia’s ambassador to Italy, Alexey Paramonov, then weighed in.

In an open letter, he expressed “sincere and human solidarity” with Pirlo, and accused the Italian establishment of ostracising him. The intervention pulled the case squarely into the geopolitical frame Pirlo had just rejected.

Mancini and Ranieri step in

Malagò moved quickly to rebuild. At Monday’s Federal Council, he appointed Roberto Mancini as head coach, returning the Euro 2020 winner to the bench three years after his exit.

He named Claudio Ranieri, 74, as technical director and president of Club Italia. At his unveiling, Mancini opened with a mea culpa over his 2023 departure. He reflected on what the national shirt means to him.

“It’s a bit like the woman of your life,” he said. “If you lose her, you’ve done something wrong.”

Malagò said the call to halt Pirlo’s appointment was his alone. Neither he nor Maldini, he added, had known of the Fonbet contract beforehand.

Fonbet is no minor operator. Founded in Moscow in 1994, it is Russia’s leading bookmaker and a sponsor of the national football team there.

What the case leaves behind

Italy found its new coaching team within days. But the episode leaves marks: a federal reshuffle that collapsed after little more than a fortnight, a candidacy ended within 48 hours of surfacing, and Moscow diplomacy stirred into an Italian football story.

It underlines how thin the line has become between sport, politics and gambling. Mancini now starts his second spell in charge of the Azzurri knowing that, on this bench, a signature on a sponsorship contract can carry as much weight as a result on the pitch.