Juventus, Napoli, and 11 more sides, alongside all their officials, will not face any sanction following the first degree of the sports trial on the allegedly false plusvalenze. The federal prosecutors had called for lengthy suspensions against Andrea Agnelli and all the other Bianconeri directors and board members, on top of Aurelio De Laurentiis and 50 more persons. Tottenham’s head of football Fabio Paratici was risking the longest punishment.
The judge will release the motivations in about ten days. The lead investigator Giuseppe Chinè can eventually appeal, but it is inevitably a major blow. During the hearings, the defendants contested the method used to establish a somewhat objective value for each player. Without such parameter, it becomes hard to prove that clubs and executives operated unlawfully. The clubs and officials were accused of having generated over €100M in fake capital gains, Corriere della Sera informs.
Previous probes on the plusvalenze, also outside of the sports justice system, had failed to overcome such hurdle. If found guilty, Juventus would have paid an €800k fine and Napoli €392k. The other teams called to the stands were Genoa, Sampdoria, Empoli, Parma, Pisa, Pescara and Pro Vercelli, plus Novara and Chievo Verona.
The second degree would occur in mid-May if the prosecutor decided to move forward. The outfits had also pointed out a technicality regarding the communications between the detectives and the independent authorities monitoring these matters, COVISOC and CONSOB. In their mind, they exceeded the allowed time frames, which should have thrown out the charges.