Disgraced former Atalanta captain Cristiano Doni yesterday pointed his finger at the “rotten” culture in Italian football as he finally owned up to the match-fixing offences which ended his career.

Doni, who admits to helping fix the results of two Serie B games last season in order to manipulate betting, is currently in prison for his offences and is serving a three and a half year ban from the game.

Speaking to La Repubblica and La Gazzetta dello Sport newspapers yesterday, the 38-year-old Doni finally admitted to helping fix the results of two Serie B (second division) matches – Ascoli vs Atalanta and Atalanta vs Piacenza – last season after being contacted by shady figures from the underworld.

Referring to the latter match, he explained, “when I was about to take a penalty, (Mario) Cassano (the Piacenza goalkeeper) told me, ‘shoot in the centre and I’ll dive’.

“I was an imbecile, and there is no excuse for that.

“The mistakes I made were designed to help Atalanta win promotion to Serie A. It was an obsession. I would have done anything (to make that happen). And that’s exactly what I did. I betrayed my sport.”

While match-fixing is a problem in other professional leagues, Doni believes Italian culture, which like many countries has legalised sports betting, has helped cultivate it.

“... the root of the problem is our culture. It’s not just about footballers. There’s also the referees, who see everything and do nothing, Federation observers, journalists and top management.”