What does this new betting scandal leave us with?

More than a week after the start of the media and court proceedings surrounding three players of the Italian national team, two of whom had to leave the training camp in Coverciano under police escort, everything has already been said and written. Nicolò Fagioli, a promising young Juventus player, has become one of Italy's most famous footballers within a few hours, unfortunately not because of his sporting merits. Rumours had already been circulating since July that he was addicted to gambling - spread by Fabrizio Corona via his much-watched Telegram channel - and placing sports bets, creating a spectre that is unfortunately familiar to Italian football. Like an eternal recurrence, every ten years, practically a generation, a new case of calcioscommesse emerges in Italy, a neologism that has now entered common parlance, uniting any seemingly illegal relationship between footballers and betting on matches. In 1980 and 1986 it was calcioscommesse or Totonero, in 2011 it was Scommessopoli, when everything had to end with the suffix that makes every word a country; today it is still the case when some of the most representative talents of the new Italian generation have ended up in the same web of clandestine betting, links to the local underworld and police operations.

There is nothing pleasant about the umpteenth scandal that has hit Fagioli, Tonali, Zaniolo and other names that may emerge from the prime ministers' papers or from Fabrizio Corona's schmoozing, there is no morality in those fresh faces plastered on the front page of the main national newspapers, there is no redemption in the appeals against gambling. What remains of a national break that has never seemed so long and exhausting is a stale sense of sadness and defeat. And even now that the championship has resumed, the sadness and helplessness do not disappear. For it is difficult to remain indifferent to this waste of talent and potential that our football movement so desperately needs, but also and above all to the decision of three or more young adults to ruin their lives. A defeat not only for our sporting system but also for our education system, which has allowed young people to slip into addiction who, on the surface, seemed to have it all. Indeed, nothing like the betting scandals to undermine the perfect model of the modern footballer, rich, young and handsome, but at the same time subject to the same fatal flaws as any of us.

In this fragility, many see the symbol of a sport that has lost its values, its roots, as Fabrizio Corona, for example, repeatedly stated in his speech on 'Avanti Popolo', the RaiTre programme hosted by Nunzia De Girolamo. One could almost say that professional sport was born to simplify and regulate the mechanism of betting, to the point of creating a parallel system that has an impact almost as great as the sport itself. In contrast to the earlier cases where footballers sold matches on behalf of third parties and manipulated the results on the pitch to enrich themselves personally, the prosecution documents paint a childish, almost naïve picture. As if the footballers involved were not aware of the possible consequences, as if the virtualisation of illegal apps, betting and money had basically even nullified the guilt.

From the indiscretions, one can see the superficiality of a group of footballers who grew up together, became successful together and experienced the world of illegal betting in their own way. While Fagioli is a tragic character, hounded by creditors to whom he owes sums unimaginable even for a professional footballer, and with the self-destructive instincts of a real player, Tonali weathered the storm with typical British aplomb, speaking only through his lawyers and to prime ministers, and negotiating a fine roughly equivalent to one season. Zaniolo has yet to comment or cooperate with the judiciary, and other implicated footballers such as Casale and El Shaarawy have sued Corona for defamation. But it is inconceivable that such a systematic investigation would stop at just three names.

Notwithstanding the scoops fired by Fabrizio Corona, who tried to run the whole affair with his usual populist frown, there is an entire youth movement that needs defending against a scourge that finds fertile space in footballers. The real or alleged ludopathy - put forward as an excuse or explanation by all concerned - points to a larger and deeper problem that is not just related to the sporting environment. It leaves a bleak landscape where sports betting is the favourite pastime of many young people, a third of whom play on illegal sites fuelling by an €18.5 billion black market, and who continue to use their smartphones to gamble, in some cases bordering on addiction. And it is precisely this convenience in placing bets, as claimed by the football players concerned, that has made the online mechanism all too accessible and triggered the consequences that are now before everyone's eyes.

Meanwhile, not only Italian football but also international football, which preaches an end to the betting agency sponsorship, can no longer do without their money. The rules that were supposed to limit advertising, sponsorship and partnerships with betting companies also in the world of football were easily circumvented by the most important teams using patches and logos of betting companies on their jerseys. The FIGC president himself, Gabriele Gravina, has called for the rules to be repealed, calling the right to bet indisputable. As with all the hypocrisies of our time, in the end some of our strongest young footballers will rightly pay for breaking rules they were pushed into by the whole system. And there will be no cause for celebration.