On Friday, Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth met with the media to discuss Sandro Tonali’s situation.
AC Milan have insisted that they were unaware of Sandro Tonali’s gambling problem during his time at the San Siro.
Milan executives issued a statement after Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth was grilled by journalists about Tonali’s 10-month FIFA ban. On Friday, Ashworth revealed that United learned about Tonali’s gambling problems through social media, five months into his time on Tyneside.
Newcastle or Dan Ashworth may be able to confirm whether the club will take legal action against the Serie A giants. However, Milan issued the following statement to UK media yesterday: “We first learnt about Tonali’s addiction through media reports and what we know is only what we read. We don’t know anything else.”
When asked if the statement reflected Milan’s top brass, the Italian club responded, “Yes, this is our position.” Only hours after Ashworth’s extensive interview, the English Football Association confirmed that they would conduct their own investigation into the midfielder.
Ashworth had said: “We first became aware of it when was there a potential allegation on social media. I spoke with his representatives and it just happened really quickly.
“The Italian federation went to speak to Sandro. Within the next 48 hours everything went quickly and there was a potential he could get charged.”
When asked if Milan should or could have told Newcastle about Tonali’s problems, Ashworth said: “It’s really difficult for me to get into what other clubs do or don’t know. All we can do is look at our own internal investigation and internal process. It’s a really difficult question for me to answer, I just don’t know.”
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