Chiesa, Dino Baggio and Del Piero Interviewed by Judges
Copyright � 1998 Nando.net
Copyright � 1998 Reuters
MILAN (Aug 14, 1998 - 10:54 EDT) - Soccer stars Alessandro Del Piero, Dino Baggio and Enrico Chiesa were interviewed by state prosecutors in Turin and Bologna on Friday as part of inquiries into drugs in Italian sport.
Three separate investigations are underway, including one in Rome led by the national Olympic committee (CONI), but all are in the spotlight after last week's drugs warning by AS Roma coach Zdenek Zeman.
Bologna magistrate Giovanni Spinosa is looking into a covert trade in substances -- whether banned or not -- used by athletes in all sports.
He ordered police swoops this week on a Bologna pharmacy, its owners and a series of sports doctors including Alberto Bargossi, who is close to the medical staff at Dino Baggio and Chiesa's club, Parma.
Baggio emerged after two hours at a police headquarters, saying: "It was nothing in particular... it all went fine, there were no problems. Now I'm going on holiday to the seaside."
The international midfielder said he was being interviewed only as a witness, which in Italian law rules out the possibility of him having committed any offence.
Asked if he thought the matter was now closed, he said: "Yes, but then it never even got started."
Chiesa emerged soon afterwards saying he too had only been interviewed as a witness, and had no knowledge of either the Bologna pharmacy or its founder, Massimo Guandalini, at the heart of the affair.
Guandalini was reportedly an adviser to Italy's national squad for the 1996 European championships in England.
Parma executive Claudio Anzalone, himself a lawyer, said his two men were chosen because: "The club does have a rapport with the pharmacy and because they were both at the European championships."
Asked if they were interviewed about EPO, a banned drug which increases oxygen in the blood and which Guandalini's shop is suspected of selling to sports teams, he said: "I don't think so.
"They were being asked about what restoratives they take, which is all perfectly above board."
Meanwhile, Del Piero spent a couple of hours in Turin with state prosecutor Raffele Guariniello, who specialises in public health issues and who had noted Zeman's surprise at Del Piero's muscle development with Juventus.
Both men left a court building there without making any comment. The venue had been chosen to try and dodge the press corps waiting outside Guariniello' s office elsewhere in the city.
However, Del Piero had already made his line of argument clear in newspaper interviews on Friday.
"I am indignant about doubts being cast on my club and on myself," said the striker, who is planning legal action against Zeman for defamation.
"You simply can't wake up one morning and decide to start accusing people you don't even know, and when you don't know what training they do," he fumed.
"As a professional, I am not at all worried about all this. I have nothing to hide and I am ready to answer to any authority."
He went on: "I feel wounded, mortified even, but I am going to fight this right through to the end. People have to pay for their mistakes and Zeman made a mistake.
"I don't know when our paths will cross next, but when it does, I don't know whether he will have the courage to look me in the eye."
As for his physique, the 23-year-old said: "I have been training very hard, with weights and in the gym, for five years: if my muscles hadn't developed I wouldn't be an athlete; I'd have given up."
Zeman had also marvelled at the muscles on former Juventus striker Gianluca Vialli, now player-coach of Chelsea.
Vialli is expected to be interviewed by Guariniello in Turin on Monday, according to Italian press reports.
