Fourteen football clubs to stand trial before the sports tribunal on tax evasion’s charges
The investigation, dubbed “Offside,” was launched three years ago and conducted by Naples Public Prosecutor’s Office. The alleged offense was criminal association aimed at tax evasion. Now that the sports prosecutor has completed the investigation, the first results are emerging. Fourteen football clubs will stand trial before the sports tribunal of Italy’s Football Association (FIGC) for their direct involvement in the case.
They are accused of several violations of sports law, also pertaining to the regulations on players’ agents.
Fifty FIGC members, including agents, managers and players, will also stand trial. Among the 14 clubs that will face the sports tribunal are seven Serie A clubs: Fc Internazionale, Juventus Fc, Ss Calcio Napoli, Us Palermo, Chievo, Genoa, Pescara. The other teams play Serie B and lower leagues: Cesena, Catania, Ternana, Vicenza, Livorno, Grosseto and Reggina.
According to the indictment, the clubs allegedly resorted to fake consulting contracts with players’ agents, i.e. the powerful counselors who do not actually have a working relationship with the clubs, but serve as consultants to the players, as if they were lawyers or accountants.
These fictitious contracts, lasting just a few days, were signed at the time of the transfer of a player from one team to another.
This way, the fees paid to consultants appeared in the clubs’ budget as remuneration of employees, i.e. a deductible cost, resulting in a lower tax burden. Had the players directly paid their agents out of their own pockets, they wouldn’t have been able to deduct these expenses from their taxable income: thus, in order to pay the same net sum to agents and players, the clubs would have had to spend more. The clubs now risk a heavy fine at most.
For the involved FIGC members, the risk is even higher and could even trigger a disqualification.
The indicted players include Ciro Immobile, at the time jointly owned by Juventus and Genoa and now with Ss Lazio and the Italian national football team; Ezequiel Lavezzi, purchased by Napoli in 2007 and sold to Paris Saint Germain in 2012; Thiago Motta, presently with Paris Saint Germain, but at the time of the alleged offenses with Internazionale, along with former Internazionale players Diego Milito, Hernan Crespo and Hugo Campagnaro.
Also standing trial will be player Massimo Oddo, formerly with AC Milan and Lecce and now serving as coach with Pescara; former ACF Fiorentina player Adrian Mutu; former Atalanta players Guglielmo Stendardo and German Denis; Emanuele Calaio (formerly with Napoli and Siena), now striker at Parma; agents Alessandro Moggi and Riccardo Calleri.
The managers include Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, with the club’s former executive Pierpaolo Marino; former Juventus CEO Jean-Claude Blanc and former sporting director Alessio Secco; Fiorentina president Mario Cognigni; former Chievo sporting director Giovanni Sartori, now technical supervisor at Atalanta; former Cesena president Igor Campedelli; former Parma CEO Piero Leonardi; former Livorno president Aldo Spinelli.
The most serious charges are those pertaining to the criminal investigation: tax fraud and false invoicing. According to rumors, the investigation conducted by the Naples prosecutors is about to reach the preliminary hearing, in which the court must decide whether the evidence gathered is sufficient to press charges against the defendants.
