Lazio sporting director Igli Tare’s brother Agron refuted the accusations that the pair have links to an Albanian betting company.
Speaking in an interview with Italian news outlet Adnkronos, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania denied the accusations seen last week in ‘Report’.
Everything is false. I have never had, in any way, shares in betting companies, nor relations of any kind with people linked to criminal circles, nor have I ever been investigated by the Bari prosecutor’s office.
What the journalists have said is not only offensive to me but is also so absurd and grossly false that it rules out the existence of any good faith.
All that was needed was to make a few small checks, dictated primarily by common sense before the rules of journalism. If they were not carried out, one is inclined to think that the whole thing was fabricated. When you don’t want to investigate things, it’s usually because it’s convenient for someone.
He touched on the position of his brother Igli as the Lazio sporting director.
My brother Igli holds the position of sporting director of Lazio football club and he is the motive for this smear campaign. It’s clear that there are third parties who have every interest in hitting him.
Maybe I’m wrong, but as one of your great political sages used to say, it’s a mistake to think the wrong way, but it’s often the right way.
The 47-year-old Albanian politician expressed his anger at the slanderous statements and noted how he was prepared to defend himself.
I am very disappointed and angry that a public broadcaster can besmirch people’s lives on live TV, conveying false and highly slanderous messages to listeners.
Don’t the top management of Rai take any responsibility for the irresponsibility of their journalists?
For more than a year and a half I have been covering the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania and yet since Report I have been designated as a consul in Turkey implicated in a 2020 football market deal. It is a clear and easy fact to verify.
Tare spoke about the impact of the accusations on both himself and his family.
Many people have asked me how things were, colleagues who spread rumours behind my back. And at work, too, having to explain the terms of the affair to my government contacts is not a pleasant thing. I experienced a strong feeling of unease and suffered for it.
However, the real damage was done to my family. Seeing the pain in the eyes of my parents and my young daughter is the greatest suffering.
Dignity, where I come from, is priceless. And when it is gratuitously insulted as a result of a well-orchestrated defamation scheme, the pain and anger are very strong.
The Albanian politician has given a mandate to his lawyer Ersi Bozheku to take criminal action against Report and the relevant newspapers.
They immediately rushed to throw mud on me and my brother, making themselves accomplices of a real defamatory media campaign.
Above all, I intend to take action against the RAI management because I find it unacceptable that a member of the government of another country can be so easily smeared without there being any control over the work of its employees.
Tare then discussed the situation in an interview with Italian radio broadcaster Radiosei (via La Lazio Siamo Noi).
The facts date back to 2014 and 2015. It’s an attack on my brother inside the Lazio world, as sports director. This guy who is a journalist, Fabrizio Gerolla, worked for a company that asked for our services as a law firm.
We did our consultancy and it ended there. The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Bari investigates the Sacra Corona Unita and in the files there are also these interceptions in which Gerolla talks to me and asks me for advice. It ends there.
He commented on the accusations levied against himself and his brother and how unfounded they are.
The strange thing is that La Repubblica did a piece in which it only talks about Tare, there were also other lawyers and well-known people involved. From what I know, La Repubblica is also interested in targeting the president of Lazio.
They make the connection between me and Muriqi but what has that got to do with me? I am no longer Albanian consul in Turkey since late 2018, Muriqi arrived last year.
No mistake was made, just as the fake repentant who tells things during the broadcast is not a mistake, he is an actor. Between the two governments we are on very good terms and I don’t want to be a divisive case.
RAI must have an objective responsibility for the journalists it employs, I am in favour of freedom of the press, but all this has been done with a motive. It is not like the journalist made a mistake and wrongly brought the facts to his broadcast.
Tare spoke about his talks with the journalist Fabrizio Gerolla.
When Gerolla called me as a representative of the company in Bari that wanted to enter the world of gambling in Albania, he asked me for advice and I offered him three alternatives.
Come and get the license and open your own company, buy an already existing company in Albania or become a partner of an already existing company.
I pointed out the most prestigious company. Gerolla is in Rome and works as a sports journalist. What I did was to consult with him.
Another serious fact omitted by Rai is that for four years there have been no more betting agencies in Albania, the government closed them down, but they don’t say so in the broadcasts. I will take Report, Rai and La Repubblica to criminal and civil courts. The truth is very slow but it always arrives.
Finally, Tare made a brief comment about the appointment of Maurizio Sarri at Lazio.
I don’t understand football, otherwise they’ll put me on Muriqi again. I’ve been following Lazio since Igli was playing.
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