(releads with Bonucci, adds details)
ROME, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Juventus and Italy defender Leonardo
Bonucci could face a three-and-a-half year ban and team mate
Simone Pepe one year following a request by the Italian Football
Federation (FIGC) prosecutor in the country's match-fixing
scandal.
On the third day of a hearing into the Calcioscommesse
scandal, FIGC prosecutor Stefano Palazzi also requested a
two-point deduction for Bologna and demotion to the third tier
for Lecce, who were relegated from Serie A last season.
Marco Di Vaio, formerly of Bologna and now with Montreal
Impact, has also had a one-year ban proposed by Palazzi while
several other players could face between three and four-year
bans.
Bonucci and Pepe both played key roles as Juventus won Serie
A last season.
Bonucci, who also helped Italy reach the Euro 2012 final, is
accused of helping to fix the result of a match when he played
for Bari in May 2010.
The game against Udinese ended 3-3.
Pepe, who was playing for Udinese in the same match, faces a
lesser charge of failing to report the alleged fix. Both players
deny wrongdoing.
The FIGC said its tribunal aimed to reach a verdict before
the end of next week.
The news is likely to infuriate Juventus, already livid over
the rejection of coach Antonio Conte's plea bargain of a
three-month ban.
Conte, who led Juventus to the Serie A title last season, is
accused of failing to report match-fixing in two games in the
2010-11 season when he was coach of Siena, then in Serie B.
He will now go to a full sporting trial.
SAMPDORIA PENALISED
Earlier on Friday, former Bari defender Andrea Masiello, now
with Atalanta, was banned for 26 months on Friday for his part
in the latest match-fixing to hit Italian football.
Promoted Sampdoria were docked one point for the forthcoming
Serie A campaign and fined 30,000 euros ($36,500) and Bari, who
play in Serie B, were docked five points and fined 80,000 euros.
Former Bari team mates Alessandro Parisi, Marco Rossi and
Marco Esposito were also suspended.
Parisi, who played for Torino in Serie B last season and is
now a free agent, will serve a two-year ban, Rossi one year and
eight months and Esposito three months and 10 days. The trio
were also fined.
Attention focused on several Bari games in the 2010-11
season, when the team was still in Serie A, including one in May
last year against local rivals Lecce. Bari, already relegated,
lost that match 2-0 with Masiello scoring an own goal in the
80th minute.
Prosecutors believe an international gambling ring paid
players to throw matches. Dozens of current and former players
in teams ranging from the Serie A top division down to the lower
leagues may have been involved, according to investigators.
In total, 13 clubs and 45 players and training staff are
facing disciplinary charges over the latest match-fixing
allegations.
The "Calcioscommesse" scandal echoes earlier match-fixing
cases which tarnished Italian soccer in the 1980s and before the
2006 World Cup.
Siena had six points deducted on Thursday, a penalty which
will also be applied in the 2012-13 season.
($1 = 0.8224 euros)
(Reporting By Steve Scherer, writing by Gavin Jones and Brian
Homewood; editing by Ed Osmond)
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