Juventus footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is being investigated by Italian police over a trip he allegedly took to celebrate his girlfriend’s birthday.
He is accused of breaking Covid-19 rules by travelling between the regions of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta.
Now-deleted footage posted on social media showed the couple on a snowmobile in a mountain resort, the same day Georgina Rodriguez turned 27.
Italy is seeing hundreds of deaths and thousands of infections daily.
The country was hit badly in the early stages of the pandemic last year and is now in a political crisis after struggling to bring down cases in a second wave.
Valle d’Aosta police said they were investigating the couple over the alleged trip to the Courmayeur ski resort.
Under current rules in Italy, travel between Covid “orange zones” is forbidden unless for work reasons or for travelling to a second home.
Reports in Italian media allege the pair travelled on Tuesday and stayed overnight in a resort hotel before returning to Turin, the home of Ronaldo’s Serie A Club, on Wednesday.
Rodriguez, a model, later shared an image with her 23m followers of the couple celebrating back at home with their family.
If found in breach of the rules, they could each face a fine.
The controversy comes months after Ronaldo himself got Covid-19. At the time he was criticised by Italy’s minister for sport for travelling to Portugal for international duty shortly before he tested positive.
Vincenzo Spadafora labelled Ronaldo “arrogant” and “disrespectful” and accused him of violating Covid-19 protocol by leaving his team’s bubble to travel after they reported infections. The player denied wrongdoing.
Source: BBC