ROME (Reuters) - Italian third division soccer club Crotone has been placed under judicial administration for a year after police found "sufficient evidence" of pervasive Mafia infiltration, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Crotone, based in the southern Calabria region that is home to the powerful 'Ndrangheta Mafia, sit seventh in Group C of the Serie C league on five points from four games.
Crotone played in the top-flight Serie A for two consecutive seasons between 2016 and 2018 and again in 2020-2021.
Tuesday's decision means the club will continue its sporting activities but under the supervision of court-appointed administrators. The club itself is not under investigation.
"FC Crotone will actively collaborate with the judicial administrators appointed by the court to continue its activities in the best interests of the club, fans and sport in general," it said in a statement.
Crotone said the court decision "does not even remotely suggest complicity or connivance by the club, its shareholders, or its managers and collaborators."
The prosecutors' office of the city of Catanzaro said in a statement that Crotone had been "subjected, over the last decade, directly or at least indirectly, to conditions of intimidation and subjugation by members of local 'Ndrangheta clans".
The local mob had, in particular, infiltrated the club's security and ticketing operations, and the judicial administration regime is expected to help steer its economic activities back onto a legal path, prosecutors said.
Mafia infiltration of Italian soccer, including the lucrative merchandising and ticketing businesses, is a well-known phenomenon, with recent investigations targeting hardline 'ultra' fan groups at top clubs Inter and AC Milan.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Emilio Parodi, editing by Gianluca Semeraro, Gareth Jones and Ken Ferris)
