The court within the Italian Football Association that acquitted Juventus, Napoli, and all the other teams involved in the plusvalenze trial released the motivations behind the ruling. Their reasoning delivered a further and maybe fatal blow to the inquiry, La Repubblica pens.
“First of all, only a few of the deals examined by the prosecutors presented the traits they indicated to label them as artificial and fake. Some transfers were indeed suspicious but not beyond the threshold of reasonable doubt and without severe and incriminating evidence.”
“The method used by the prosecutors to quantify the players, and pinpoint the plusvalenze, is not the only possible one. The comparison with the Transfermarkt evaluations can not corroborate it since it is a private site with no official recognition from international organizations. Moreover, it is highly influenced by the subjective opinions of its users.”
“The investigation itself cites the difficulties in recognizing fair values. In general, they can not be scientific because they stem from the particular situations of the buyers and sellers. They also depend on the time when operations are conducted and are the result of negotiations. In that sense, there can not be a way to properly evaluate the free market. It would cease to exist if the prices were pre-determined.”
“The modus operandi of the prosecutors that led to the deferrals was unusable. Since there is not a set of bylaws regulating the matter, which could be put in place just by FIFA, the deals in question can not be considered illicit.”