If you thought it had been quiet, you were right. The calm before the storm is what that’s known as in certain parts of Rome. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has been busy working its way through very many financial irregularities and our Director of Football, Fabio Paratici has been named as a key figure. There is a lengthy list of those the Italian Feds want to sanction, which, I’ll include verbatim at the foot of this piece.
The charges relate to fictitious capital gains activity involving 11 Italian teams and 61 executives. Perhaps it would have made for lighter work, to draw up a list of those clubs and executives that weren’t involved.
Of course, the key issue for us will be if any backlash will be felt by Tottenham, in the Premier League. It seems ambitious, but given the high profile of Fabio amongst those being reproached, it would surely make a mockery if he avoided the penalty?
The clubs involved Juventus, Naples, Empoli, Genoa, Sampdoria, Parma, Pisa, Pescara, Pro Vercelli, Chievo Verona and Novara.
The individuals named Fabio Paratici, Pavel Nedved, Enrico Vellano, Paolo Garimberti, Assia Grazioli Venier, Maurizio Arrivabene, Caitlin Mary Hughes, Daniela Marilungo, Francesco Roncaglio; Aurelio De Laurentiis, president of Napoli; Andrea Chiavelli; Jacqueline Marie Baudit, Edoardo De Laurentiis and Valentina De Laurentiis; Enrico Preziosi and Giovanni Blondet; Alessandro Zarbano; Diodato Abagnara. Giovanni Corrado; Raffaella Viscardi; Julie Michelle Harper, Alexander Knaster, Marco Lippi; Mirco Pletti, Giovanni Polvani, Stuart Grant Thompson, Stephen Gaucci. Luca Carra; Pietro Pizzarotti; Giacomo Malmesi; Paolo Piva; Marco Tarantino. Massimo Ferrero; Massimo Ienca; Antonio Romei; Paolo Repetto, Gianluca Tognozzi, Giovanni winterizzi, Paolo Fiorentino; Giuseppe Profiti, Enrico Castanini, Gianluca Vidal, Adolfo Praga.
I was in Verona once having a meal in the piazza when all of a sudden all the restaurants put up signs saying cash only. I suspect the tills were switched off for an hour to hoover up the lunchtime trade off book. Nobody blinked an eye even the local
police. Business as usual I guess.
I’ve been over there over the years, and your experiences completely fit with what I found too. The EU of course turns a complete blind eye to all of it and in who’s pockets Brussel’s subsidies end up in. Some of the newer member states like Bulgaria are just completely off the flipping scale. No checks or balances from Brussels, just collusion…
Yeah I know, would lose his job here surely.
Strange authorities in Italy.. I just read that Conte had more than one ‘fraud trial’ over there for match fixing!.. Crazy.
No I mean after he is jailed!
With all the unravelling of facts needed, surely it would be nigh on impossible to apportion blame to individuals apart from to those in charge of the respective clubs, if everyone ‘non disse niente,’ so my guess is Fabio will be ok.
Having said that, it is Italy so their ‘rules of evidence’ may be as ‘bent’ as the whole nation is anyway?
I worked with Italian companies/agent in the rag trade and I can say hand on heart, the entire f*cking country is as bent as the Nürburgring…
No longer being part of the EU, any decision made regarding charges relating to football in Italy, by the Italian authorities, would presumably not be binding upon the FA. However, if such sanctions were ratified and endorsed by EUFA, that would likely have rather different consequences. Let us hope Paratici can avoid any suspension effecting his tenure here, as the Conte/Paratici axis is really starting to pay dividends since the turn of the year, as we have all witnessed.
Its what happens in football,
You’ve a system of loans with guaranteed buy options 12 months down the line.
And with transfer set on clubs whims, you can flip a player the day you’ve signed him for their value last year due to the loan vs what you can sell them today.
A lot of this seems similar to what goes into football at the top of the pyramid just to meet FFP.
The Romero deal is part of the investigation that Atalanta may flip a player and make 30 million on that in a day.
Is it to dissimilar to the Royal transfers.
Unless Paratici is using that to show levels of competence in deal making.
Could the ban only be in Italy? and he continues as neqar normal.
If suspended across Europe that could open a pandoras box.
All he has to say is that he didn’t realise it was a
partyfinancial irregularity and apologise. I mean, don’t they know there’s awarCL spot up for grabsWe should be looking closer to home, the goings on at citeh leave a lot to be desired, never mind what has been happening at No 10.
That one call will be to his lawyer no doubt.
I hate to bow to national stereotypes, but isn’t a level of corruption just a part of what happens in daily life in Italy?
As long as Fabio can use his phone in prison we’ll be fine!
Pretty good assessment. Levy did know, but was assured by Fabio. Won’t do much for their relationship
It would seem that fraud is endemic in the Italian game.Some notable names in that list which also includes Juventus.
You would think that having their trousers pulled down several years ago when they were demoted to the 5th.tier,was it,of Italian football might have taught them a lesson.
It could be that Paratici is heading for a fall which could be an embarrassment for Levy,due diligence anyone.More to the point how will this affect Conte’s position and could we find another ally.The timing of any prosecution could impact Conte’s summer recruitment.