Tottenham's Fabio Paratici has been thrust into the spotlight this week after the decision of Italy's football federation to ban him for 30 months from anything coming under their remit with FIFA and UEFA also asked to extend that ban worldwide.
The 50-year-old joined Spurs as managing director of football in the summer of 2021 having left Juventus after 11 years in Turin. He has worked over two head coaches at Tottenham during those 18 months in Nuno Espirito Santo and now Antonio Conte and has signed 14 first team players since his arrival.
Here's exactly what happened yesterday in Italy, the responses or not from the clubs involved and what it could mean for Paratici and Tottenham.
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What exactly happened?
This has been rumbling on for a little while, with Juventus accused among 11 clubs of fixing their balance sheets by artificial gains from club transfers. Juventus denied any wrongdoing as did the other clubs and they were initially all acquitted by Italy's Federal Court in April last year with the 10 other clubs and 59 individuals, including Paratici, accused.
More than 50 transfers from between 2019 and 2021 - before Paratici's arrival at Tottenham - had been investigated with the allegation that player valuations had possibly being inflated to help clubs balance their books.
However, that case was reopened in December with the Italian Football Federation announcing that the federal prosecutor, having examined the documents and the preliminary investigation documents of the 'Prisma' criminal investigation by the public prosecutor at the Court of Turin, had proposed an appeal for partial revocation of the acquittal decision against Juventus, Sampdoria, Pro Vercelli, Genoa, Parma, Pisa, Empoli, Novara, Pescara and 52 executives of those clubs, along with added disciplinary actions against Juventus.
The previous month, Juve's board of directors, including president Andrea Agnelli and vice-president Pavel Nedved, had resigned amid the investigation.
On Friday evening, the Court of Appeal of the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC - the Italian football federation) made their decision based on the prosecutor's evidence and the defence of those accused.
What was the verdict?
While the other eight clubs were acquitted, Juventus were hit hard by the verdict late on Friday night.
The Turin club were handed a 15-point deduction for this season in Serie A as the court not only took on board the prosecutor's recommended sanctions but increased them for the club and individuals involved.
Paratici got the biggest individual ban for what the court saw as his part in it all with a 30-month temporary ban from carrying out activities within the FIGC, with a request for an extension for that suspension to hold across the game within UEFA and FIFA. Agnelli received a 24 month ban, Nedved an eight month one, along with other individuals from Juventus, past and present, getting various lengths of bans, all with a request from the Italy federation for UEFA and FIFA to extend the bans across the European and global game.
What have Juventus said in response?
First up, Juventus' lawyers Maurizio Bellacosa, Davide Sangiorgio and Nicola Apa said: "Today's acceptance of the appeal for revocation by the Federal Court of Appeal seems to us to constitute a clear unequal treatment of Juventus and its managers compared to any other club or member.
"We look forward to carefully reading the reasons for submitting the appeal before the Collegio di Garanzia dello Sport, however we point out, as of now, that only Juventus and its managers are accused of violating a rule, which the sports justice system itself had repeatedly acknowledged does not exist. clear injustice also towards millions of enthusiasts, who we trust will soon be remedied in the next level of judgment."
The Italian club then confirmed at the end of their own statement that "the company awaits the publication of the reasons of the decision and announces as of now the bringing of an appeal to the Sport Guarantee Board (Collegio di Garanzia dello Sport) in accordance with the terms of the Sport Justice Code."
What have Spurs said?
The silence from Tottenham is deafening and after being contacted by football.london, the club declined to comment on the situation at this stage.
What comes next?
This could well get messy and it's all about how it impacts Paratici's work with Tottenham, whether he can continue as a director and also no doubt how this verdict and anything that comes next reflects on the north London club through their association with their managing director of football.
When contacted by football.london about their involvement in whether Paratici's ban will be extended across Europe, UEFA stated that there was also an ongoing investigation, begun last month, through the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) first chamber into Juventus, which will "cooperate with national authorities and focus on the alleged financial violations".
That investigation is an independent one and the CFCB will report back when they have collected all of their findings, but the strong stance of the Italian football federation will have been noted.
Juventus and Paratici can appeal the decision in Italy, with the local media reporting that the federal court now has a maximum of 10 days to present the reasons for its verdict and from the day that is published, there are a further 30 days in which Juventus can present its appeal.
After hearing the appeal, the Sport Guarantee Board can then only decide to confirm or cancel the sanctions, not increase or decrease them. Italian media report that board is the final stage of appeal for sports justice and if they do not get the verdict they want there then Juventus would have to appeal to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court and then the Council of State.
What could it mean for Spurs?
Much depends on what decision Paratici and Tottenham take next amidst the backdrop of the decision in Italy as well as Premier League rules. The club and chairman Daniel Levy's actions are under plenty of scrutiny right now and on Saturday morning a small but noisy group of supporters were outside their Hotspur Way training complex protesting against the owners.
football.london understands that Paratici appeared to be working as normal in his role on Saturday morning and was in contact with agents as Spurs tackle the final 10 days of the transfer window. At the moment his ban is only in effect in Italy and whether the appeals process ends up suspending that during the course of that process is another thing.
Paratici delegates much of his non-transfer work within Tottenham down the structure he has created in the past 12 months, which includes performance director Gretar Steinsson and head of football strategy Andy Scoulding. They both arrived with a remit that includes first team and academy, while former Manchester City academy coach Simon Davies joined as head of coaching methodology to work with academy manager Dean Rastrick.
However, when it comes to the first team, football.london understands that Paratici is Conte's main point of contact with the board and the duo speak every day, having forged a strong working relationship from their time together at Juventus in the past.
The other issue is whether Paratici now fails the Premier League's owners' and directors' test. That test outlines requirements that would prohibit an individual from becoming an owner or director of a club, including "a ban by a sporting or professional body".
Section F of the Premier League's rule book states more fully that a person can be disqualified as a director if they are "subject to a suspension or ban from involvement in the administration of a sport by any ruling body of a sport that is recognised by the International Olympic Committee, UK Sport, or Sport England, another of the home country sports councils, or any other national or international sporting association or governing body, whether such suspension or ban is direct or indirect (for example a direction to persons subject to the jurisdiction of the ruling body that they should not employ, contract with or otherwise engage or retain the services of an individual)".
The rules then state that in the advent of such a change of circumstances the Premier League board would have to "give written notice to the person that he/she is disqualified, giving reasons therefore, and require him/her forthwith to resign as a director; and give written notice to the relevant club that the person is disqualified, giving reasons therefore, and in default of the director’s resignation, it shall procure that within 28 days of receipt of such notice the director is removed from his/her office as such."
It is worth noting that, despite his official club title as a director, Paratici is not named among the five officers of Tottenham Hotspur registered on Companies House, but he is named in the official Premier League handbook among the club's seven listed directors.
Either way all eyes will be on what happens next at Tottenham, it's a mess the north London club could have done without right now.
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