The secretary-general of the Italian Olympic Committee said yesterday he had received official notification he was under investigation in a doping probe but that it concerned cycling, not soccer.

Raffaele Pagnozzi said: "It concerns a case of alleged interference regarding positive test results on analyses of a member of the cycling federation. I exclude any responsibility on my part or any behaviour that was less than correct."

News of Pagnozzi's investigation broke on Thursday, hours after the head of the Italian Football Federation Luciano Nizzola was formally notified that he, too, was being probed in a widening investigation into alleged doping in soccer.