Former Catania president Antonino Pulvirenti has confessed to attempts to fix the results of five Serie B games in Italy this season in a bid to save his club from relegation to the third division.

Pulvirenti and six other people, including club chief executive Pablo Cosentino, were arrested last week in Italy on suspicion of sports fraud.

Catania, who were demoted from Serie A in 2013-14 after eight consecutive years in the Italy’s top flight, finished 15th out of 22 teams in Serie B last season to avoid relegation.

A statement from Pulvirenti’s lawyers that appears on Catania’s official website claims their client did try to “fix the results of several games” but says those attempts had no bearing on the actual outcomes of the games in question.

Five Serie B games involving Catania are under investigation – against Varese, Trapani, Latina, Ternana and Livorno.

Catania won four of those games in April before being held to a 1-1 result by Livorno on May 2.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) have begun their own inquiry and requested the documentation from the Catania prosecutors regarding the investigation labelled “the goal trains”.

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