BREAKING: Juventus docked 15 points in Serie A; Paratici “suspended” for 2.5 years

A judge in Italy has handed down a ruling in the current scandal currently rocking Juventus and all of football in Serie A, and in what can only be considered “peak banter,” that ruling has somehow managed to encompass Tottenham Hotspur.

The Italian magistrate, investigating Juventus for a series of financial malfeasance crimes involving cooked books and deliberately misstated balance sheets, has ruled that the Old Lady is to have 15 points deducted from its total in the Serie A table. In addition, many of its former executives, including former president Andrea Agnelli and former director of football (and current Tottenham DoF) Fabio Paratici have been issued substantial suspensions. Paratici received the worst punishment with a suspension of 2.5 years.

But the biggest question in the immediate aftermath of the ruling was — suspension from what? Italian football? European football? All of football? There were conflicting reports initially, but while the situation remains murky, it appears that for now Paratici’s suspension is only applicable to football in Italy. However, the prosecutor is attempting to have it apply to England as well, which would impact Paratici’s job as Tottenham’s Managing Director of Football.

It is also not clear when the decision of the ruling’s impact in England will be decided, and there’s also apparently an appeals process, so this could take a long while to resolve.

But separate from the question of “Can Paratici be suspended in England” is another one — Should Tottenham keep him around? He has effectively been convicted of financial crimes while working for a football club in Italy, and it’s not too deep of a leap to suggest that those crimes should negatively impact his job performance in the UK. Spurs would certainly be well within their rights to fire him should they think that his actions in Italy reflect negatively on the club.

At the time of this article’s posting we have not heard anything from Tottenham regarding Paratici or their reaction to today’s ruling in Italy. As of right now, things are, essentially, business as usual. If Spurs do decide to take action against Paratici, very likely either Paratici’s deputy Gretar Steinsson or Daniel Levy would take control of Tottenham’s negotiations in what’s left of the January transfer window.

Never a dull day at Tottenham Hotspur, huh?