Covisoc, the authority that monitors the finances of Serie A teams, has concluded a lengthy probe on the transfer market deals from 2019 to 2021. They flagged 62 moves, especially swaps, due to possible bloated evaluations to benefit the balance sheets. In particular, it signaled a few operations by Juventus and the acquisition of Victor Osimhen by Napoli.
The documents have been handed to federal prosecutor Giuseppe Chinè. He will have to decide whether to open a formal inquiry, La Repubblica reports. Covisoc aimed at denouncing a common practice within football rather than referring a particular team. However, it also detailed the most suspicious deals.
For instance, Juventus put together an €8M trade with Olympique Marseille involving Franco Tongya and Marley Aké. Both have featured only in the second teams afterward. The Nicolò Rovella transfer was highlighted too. Napoli tacked on €20M to Victor Osimhen’s price tag as they shipped four players to Lille. Veteran goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis is the only one still with the French club. They released the three youngsters in early October. Luigi Liguori signed with Afragolese, Ciro Palmieri with Nocerina, both in Serie D, while Claudio Manzi joined Turris in the third division.
Juventus also assembled high-profile swaps like the Miralem Pjanic-Arthur one with Barcelona and the exchange between Joao Cancelo and Danilo with Manchester City. Covisoc indicated that only €3M really moved in 42 deals of the Old Lady worthy €90M on paper.
The so-called plusvalenze were common in the recent past. However, they stopped in the most recent windows since UEFA de facto halted the Financial Fair Play due to the pandemic. The authority added that it is tough to properly gauge the value of players. Previous investigations on Inter and Milan yielded no punishments for such reason in 2018.