“There are police officers watching the corner also because of what happened… to poor Vittorio.” It's May 26, 2023 and Inter legend Marco Materazzi is speaking on the phone with Nerazzurri ultra boss Marco Ferdico. The information – claims Materazzi – comes directly from Javier Zanetti, his former teammate and vice-president of the club. The reference – “poor Vittorio” – is to the former leader of the Curva Nord Vittorio Boiocchi, killed by unknown assailants in the fall of 2022 near his home shortly before an Inter match. This interception, like many others, appears in the requests for precautionary measures linked to the mega-investigation with which Milanese prosecutors Paolo Storari and Sara Ombra beheaded the leaders of the Milanese organized supporters. And this is not the only case in which the ultra leaders of Milan and Inter have directly interfaced with management, former players or players still active.
Meetings with players
Marco Ferdico is still at the center of interceptions over alleged meetings with Inter players. Hakan Calhanoglu, Nicolò Barella and Juan Cuadrado: three of the names who, according to the ultra leader, would have had face-to-face meetings with the leaders of the North. In this same conversation with Materazzi on May 26, 2023, Ferdico admits to the former defender that he met with Calhanoglu and Barella “to talk about the critical issues arising from the issue of tickets for the Champions League final.” The same problem for which Ferdico had directly contacted the Nerazzurri coach, Simone Inzaghi, asking him to intercede with the management so that the number of supporters with tickets increased from 800 to 1,500. An increase which, “after taking note of the Turkish footballer's complaints regarding the club's behavior”, was actually granted. Not for reasons of simple support, but – as Materazzi himself admitted during his interception – to organize an illicit resale at tenfold prices “from 80 to 900 euros”.
According to Storari and Ombra prosecutors, Calhanoglu himself should have spent during the month of August 2023 “an evening dining with his family, with that of Bellocco Antonio”, heir to the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta gang of the same name killed by the Andrea Beretta, partisan leader and member of the board of directors of Inter, September 4. During various meetings with the Turkish player, Ferdico would have received “as a gift official jerseys which were then given to Bellocco”. On August 22, 2023, the ultras boss also informed Bellocco of an imminent meeting with Calhanoglu and “Colombian Inter footballer Juan Cuadrado”, which should have taken place in two days.
Mattresses? Simply “very close to typhoid”
Materazzi remains without investigation, he is simply considered “very close to the Inter club and at the same time linked to the representatives of the Curva Nord”. The proximity between the organized support and the former player would be demonstrated “by his presence at the Inter support meeting on September 14, 2023. An occasion during which there was advertising of the beer marketed by Materazzi and the promise of Ferdico and Beretta to commit so that, in the future, the exclusive sale of this drink can materialize in the possible next Inter stadium”. A sort of replica of the Boem-Fedez affair, but dressed as a Nerazzurri.
The Milan prosecutor's office, given the repeated contacts with the players and managers of the club, was able to hear the coach Simone Inzaghi and the vice-president Javier Zanetti. But also the former Nerazzurri Milan Skriniar, who would have had a difficult face-to-face with the members of the North board before his farewell to PSG, and the Milan captain Davide Calabria. In addition to them, many other members of the company were able to be interviewed to verify the degree of “pressure” exerted on the companies.
The relationship between the ultras and society
In the request for pre-trial detention of the 19 ultras arrested yesterday, the societal aspect is not omitted. According to prosecutors, Inter “by alternating attitudes that vary between negligent facilitation and servility, indirectly maintains relationships with organized crime and stadium delinquency.” And he would be “unable to clearly interrupt these relations”. This is the reason that pushed the Milan court to open the “preventive procedure” for the Nerazzurri club, as well as for its cousins AC Milan. Without requests – at least for the moment – for judicial administration, but with cross-examination with the lawyers of the two Milan teams.
On February 29, Claudio Sala, first head of security for the Inter team, declared that “the club interacts with the ultras exclusively through the Slo (Supporter Liasion Officer, responsible for relations with supporters, ed). Who has the task of speaking with the supporters, and in particular with Ferdico Marco, since he is now the head of the board of directors of Curva, and it is still him, Ferdico, who takes care of the digital demand membership cards or tickets”. And Ferdico, according to prosecutors, would be the main person responsible for “the entry of Antonio Bellocco into Inter Curva”. In addition to being an active protagonist of various “violent behavior towards police forces and opposing supporters”. Among the suspects, also under arrest, is Debora Turiello, Ferdico's right-hand man in the management of relations with the club and also protagonist of violent attacks, she would be responsible for. the “concealment of Andrea Beretta (convicted of stadium crime) in the association We are Milancover structure for violent typhus”.
Not just Inter
Among those investigated and searched, but on the side of AC Milan, was also Mauro Russo. Brother of Aldo, brother-in-law of Paolo Maldini, he is a business partner of the former AC Milan captain and Christian Vieri. According to the Milan public prosecutor's office, Mauro Russo is responsible for the corruption of Lombard regional councilor Manfredi Palmeri – also under investigation – in the context of parking transactions near San Siro.
