Paratici acquitted of financial malfeasance by Italian court

Tottenham Hotspur Managing Director of Football Fabio Paratici is a free man! According to Gianluca DiMarzio, Paratici was ACQUITTED along with the other 58 Italian club officials indicted by Italian financial regulators and charged with financial malfeasance over inflated transfer valuations. The charges against all of the accused Italian clubs have also been summarily dismissed.

Paratici was charged with, basically, cooking the books for various player swap deals while serving as a director of football at Juventus. His charges came amidst a wide-ranging probe that encompassed 11 Serie A clubs and included nearly 60 football club executives. Italian prosecutors had asked the ruling tribunal for a range of punishments that included a ban from football of 16 months for Paratici, and a fine of £800k levied against Juventus.

Now, it looks like everyone involved has been found not guilty.

DiMarzio’s is an Italian language article. Being neither a lawyer nor an Italian I won’t even pretend to fully understand the nuance of what’s being discussed here, but Paratici’s charges were dismissed as part of the “first instance sentencing.” Now, what I’m not sure about is whether that means that there are further instances or charges that could still come down the pipe. I’ll leave that for actual Italian lawyers (and if you happen to be one, please say hi in the comments below.)

There was some question as to whether any punishment Paratici would’ve received would even be applicable if he were found guilty since Don Fabio has already left Juventus and is now employed by Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs’ refusal mention or even comment on these charges made me at the time think that it wasn’t anything we needed to worry about. But now, we have extra double plus zero reasons to worry.

Paratici is free! Time to celebrate, calzones and Campari for everyone! (We’ll skip the lasagna.)