Maduka Okoye bags 2-month ban for illegal betting in Italy

Nigeria and Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye has been handed a two-month ban for illegal betting in Italy.

An Italian tribunal slammed the sanction on Okoye on Tuesday, July 22, 2025.

Okoye, however, avoided the far worse four-year suspension if he had been found guilty of sporting fraud.

This is significantly less than the feared result of the trial, in which he could’ve faced up to a four-year ban for sporting fraud.

The situation erupted during the Serie A match between Udinese and Lazio on March 11, 2024, when he was booked for time-wasting with his team leading 2-1 at the 64th minute.

A rush of suspicious betting activity around the 25-year-old Super Eagles goalkeeper receiving a yellow card was flagged to the authorities, who launched an investigation.

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They found that most of those bets, which at 8/1 odds allegedly generated over €120,000 in winnings, were based around the provinces of Udine.

Okoye was investigated along with three friends and he was deferred to the disciplinary commission in June 2025.

It was feared he could be banned for four years if found guilty of sporting fraud, but the authorities opted to only convict for the lesser charge of illegal betting.

The two-month ban will start from the opening competitive match of the 2025-26 season, which is the Coppa Italia game against Carrarese on August 18.

Okoye will therefore miss six Serie A games and be available again from October 19.

The Nigeria international has 18 caps for his country and moved to Udinese from Watford in 2023.

The Star