Juventus and Italian national team legend Gianluigi Buffon shared his thoughts on his compatriots Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Faggioli, who are serving a suspension for violating betting rules.
"This is a very delicate issue. I think it is wrong to criminalise this situation. Betting is not a crime in itself. Stadiums and sports broadcasts are full of advertisements for such apps, and the state encourages gambling. On the other hand, if a football player bets on football, he faces punishment, and rightly so; but if he bets on volleyball, basketball, dog racing, he is not committing a crime.
The problem with gambling is not how much money you spend, but how often you do it. And we need to explain this to children: if you make constant bets for 1 euro, spending hours in front of the app, it's normal; but if someone spends 1 million at a time, they are a gambler. The disease comes from the addiction, the constancy with which a person does something," Corriere della Sera quoted the former goalkeeper as saying.
Buffon was involved in a betting scandal during his playing career, accused of betting on five Juventus matches between 2004 and 2005.
"I don't like fanatics who judge with an abnormal superficiality of information without really knowing the motives. I was in a similar situation myself, when I was tarnished, but I did not violate anything. When the truth comes out, you forget to explain and apologise, and you label people. I think that's deeply wrong," Buffon added.