Simone Farina

Simone Farina (born 18 April 1982) is a former Italian footballer who played as a defender. He went on to work for Aston Villa as a Community Coach and Head of Sports Integrity following his role as a whistleblower in the 2011–12 Italian football match-fixing scandal. He has gone on to work in an ambassadorial role with young players within Italy's Serie B.

Simone Farina
Personal information
Full name Simone Farina
Date of birth (1982-04-18) 18 April 1982
Place of birth Rome, Italy
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Roma
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2002 Roma 0 (0)
2001–2002 → Catania (loan) 2 (0)
2002–2004 Cittadella 17 (1)
2004–2006 Gualdo 54 (0)
2006–2007 Celano 28 (2)
2007–2012 Gubbio 58 (2)
Total 159 (5)
International career
1997–1998 Italy U15 2 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 22:20, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Career

Early career

Born in Rome and a fan of Lazio,[1] Farina started his career at A.S. Roma and was a member of the Primavera U20 youth team in the 2000–01 season.[2] In the 2001–02 season, he left for Catania on loan. He played twice for Catania in Serie C1 and won promotion playoffs with the Sicilian club.

Roma's False accounting scandal

On 28 June 2002, he was exchanged with Alessandro Sturba who only played twice in Series A, though both players were tagged for the nominal value of €2.4 million.[3][4] Co-currently, Roma bought back Farina's 50% registration rights (co-ownership deal) for €1.2M. Roma also made similar deals with other clubs before the end of fiscal year on 30 June 2002, and created a "profit" of €55million by selling their youth players.[5] In 2004, Roma was investigated[6] and was fined €60,000 on 30 October 2007 by the Criminal Court of Rome for irregular transferring of youth players.[7]

Cittadella

At Cittadella, Farina only played 17 times in two seasons with the club in Serie C1. In June 2004, Roma gave up the remaining rights for free (which the nominal value was €1.2M).[8]

Serie C2 clubs and Gubbio

Farina then left for Serie C2 club Gualdo. After the club went bankrupt, he joined Celano also in Serie C2. In June 2007, he signed a 1-year contract with Serie C2 club Gubbio.[9] With Gubbio he won two promotions, and reached out his career peak by playing in the 2011–12 Serie B with his club.

2011 Italian football scandal

He became famous during the 2011 Italian football scandal when he was approached and offered €200,000 by Alessandro Zamperini, a former teammate at A.S. Roma, to influence the outcome of an Italian Cup match between Cesena and Gubbio on 30 November. The player refused and reported the incident to the police,[10] resulting in the arrest of 17 people the following month.[1] Following this, the Italy national team manager Cesare Prandelli invited him to train with the national team for three days as a prize for his honesty.[11] For the same reason, he received an award from Sepp Blatter during the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony.[12]

Retirement as a player and appointment by Aston Villa

Farina retired from football with Gubbio in 2012 Farina joined Aston Villa first as a community coach in September 2012 and subsequently as Head of Sports Integrity in September 2013.[13][14] During this role in August 2014 Farina was named a FIFA Ambassador for fair play by Sepp Blatter, also working with the English FA to raise awareness of betting regulations among players.[15]

Serie B

Farina later became an ambassador for Serie B, having been appointed by Andrea Abodi in May 2015.[16] He had already been a member of the Serie B ethics committee that convenes annually to allocate charitable funds.[16]

References
  1. "Honour bound" When Saturday Comes, March 2012, Issue 301
  2. "Primavera Squad 2000/2001". Channel 2. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  3. Vittorio Malagutti (2002-11-07). "La Roma ha un buco nel bilancio? Per coprirlo basta vendere 26 sconosciuti". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  4. Andrea Righi (2002-07-04). "Il Cittadella attivo sul mercato". Tutto Mercato Web (in Italian). Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  5. "Calciopoli: pm, falsi i bilanci di Roma e Lazio". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 2006-05-22. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  6. Glenn Moore (2004-12-04). "Sensi investigation rocks Roma". The Independent. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  7. "Doping amministrativo Roma colpevole, Lazio no". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  8. "Approvazione Situazione Mensile al 31 maggio 2004" (PDF). AS Roma (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  9. Stefano Sica (2007-06-23). "UFFICIALE: Farina al Gubbio". Tutto Mercato Web. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  10. "Ex-Atalanta captain Doni arrested in match-fixing case". IBN Live. 2011-12-21. Archived from the original on 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  11. "Prandelli chiama il 'giocatore pulito' Farina si allenerà con gli azzurri". La Repubblica (in Italian). 2011-12-21. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
  12. "Pallone d'oro 2011 a Messi".
  13. "Villa community coach Simone Farina calls on player and club officials to aid fight against match fixing". Aston Villa F.C. Official Facebook Page. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  14. "Network Villa: Join Lunch with moral champion Simone Farina". Aston Villa F.C. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  15. "Video: Villa coach enlisted to help FA". Birmingham Mail. August 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  16. "Simone Farina returns to Italy. For him a role as ambassador in Serie B (translated)". Sport Media Set. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
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