Serie A takes out TV pirates

By Football Italia staff

Lega Serie A says the arrest of an illegal TV operator is “excellent news for our country”, which makes “our world a much better place”.

One of the creators of ‘Xtream Codes’ was arrested in Greece yesterday, as part of a European investigation into the clamping-down of illegal streams known as IPTV.

It is estimated that 5m people in Italy use the platform, with around 700,000 actively connected at the time of the service’s shutdown.

“Piracy is a plague that drains resources and feeds underworld circuits, causing economic and employment damage in excess of €1bn,” said Lega Serie A President Gaetano Micchiche.

“Lega Serie A has allocated funds to combat this criminal phenomenon, and our objective is to significantly reduce the number of pirates in our League.

“Operations like today show us that we’re on the right track.”

League CEO Luigi De Siervo added: “It’s excellent news for our country.

“Finally we begin to reestablish the rule of law. We’ll continue to raise awareness and take action so these criminals can be prosecuted and also every single user, who risk fines of up to €25,000 for the use of illegal IPTVs.

“Piracy kills football and today I can say that our world is a much better place.”

As of April 2018, IPTV users in Italy risk fines of €2,500-25,000 or prison sentences of six months to three years.

It comes little over a week after Italian authorities had closed 114 websites illegally streaming sporting events.

However, the League’s stance will surely anger those who believe it is not doing nearly enough to combat racism.

On Tuesday, the FIGC cleared Cagliari and Verona of discriminatory behaviour, despite apparent evidence that their fans had targeted Romelu Lukaku and Franck Kessie.

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