Daniel Levy was trying to do the right thing. In the aftermath of Antonio Conte’s sacking towards the end of March, the Tottenham chairman wanted to put out a reassuring message for supporters. He got Fabio Paratici to do the honours, the managing director of football speaking in slightly stilted English and on a poorly shot iPhone video. It ticked a box.
Less than 24 hours later, the club were blindsided by Fifa’s decision to extend Paratici’s 30-month ban from Italian football for alleged false accounting to the rest of the world. The club knew a global punishment for Paratici relating to issues from his Juventus days was a possibility, that it was maybe in the post. It was just not meant to be delivered that day.
