Luciano Spalletti had planned to tap into the recent Premier League experience of Nicolò Zaniolo and Sandro Tonali for Italy’s Euro 2024 qualifier against England at Wembley. Both players featured in his first game in charge of the Azzurri last month and were called up again for this latest international round. On Friday, however, they left Italy’s training base after being informed that they were under investigation by public prosecutors in Turin.
Zaniolo and Tonali were questioned and had electronic devices seized by police during a surprise raid at the Coverciano facility one day before. The Italian football federation (FIGC) released them back to their clubs, observing in a statement that they could not be in the right frame of mind for games against Malta and England and stressing a desire “to protect the players as well”.
