Back to the Aston Villa Newsfeed

Italy boss Luciano Spalletti recalls 'traumatic' training ground raid by police amid investigation into betting breaches and claims Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo were 'absolutely distraught' after being questioned

Italy boss Luciano Spalletti has described the ‘trauma’ of last week’s raid on his team’s training base, revealing the abrupt arrival of investigators looking into illegal betting left Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali and Aston Villa’s Nicolo Zaniolo ‘absolutely distraught’.

Tonali and Zaniolo are not available after prosecutors turned up in Florence on Thursday to interview the pair, who were then released to their clubs by the Italian FA.

Spalletti said: ‘It was traumatic for the team because we had the authorities almost coming into the dressing room. Everyone was surprised. Everyone was upset. Some of us were able to give them a hug before they went home.