Buffon explained he had bet on foreign football

Rome: Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was questioned by magistrates on Saturday over alleged betting improprieties ? part of a string of scandals which has rocked the nation just weeks before the start of the World Cup.

Buffon, the world’s most expensive ’keeper, voluntarily presented himself for questioning by magistrates in Turin, the hometown of his team Juventus ? the club at the eye of a storm that has hit Italy’s soccer elite.

The player’s lawyer denied his client had broken Italian rules which ban players from betting on football matches.

“Buffon explained to the magistrates that he had bet on foreign football and other games before autumn of 2005,” Luigi Chiappero told newsmen, saying he had not placed any bets on soccer since the ban on betting in any league had been in place.

Also on Saturday, the Italian Football Federation withdrew a referee it was planning to send to the World Cup finals, Massimo De Santis, along with two assistant referees, all of whom are under investigation in the probe.

The timing of the scandal, which Italian media have compared to the ‘Bribesville’ political corruption probe which laid waste a generation of Italian politicians in the early 1990s, could hardly be worse for the soccer-mad nation.

On Sunday, Juventus play a match that could secure the Serie A champions the ‘scudetto’ for the second year running ? a glory that will be overshadowed by allegations that its officials sought in the past to influence the choice of referees.

Juventus’ board of directors resigned en masse on Thursday after newspapers published transcripts of bugged telephone calls in which the team’s general manager Luciano Moggi and CEO Antonio Giraudo apparently discussed refereeing appointments with senior football federation officials.

On Monday, Marcello Lippi, coach of the national team, has to submit the names of the squad he will be taking to Germany for the June 9-July 9 finals. Until the scandal broke, Italy were among the favourites to win world soccer’s most coveted trophy.