TOTTENHAM’S FABIO PARATICI STEPS DOWN FROM DIRECTOR ROLE AT THE CLUB
Tottenham Hotspur director Fabio Paratici has stepped down from his role as managing director of football pending the outcome of his appeal against a worldwide ban, the club confirmed on Friday.
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee announced this week, on Wednesday, March 29th, a decision to extend the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) sanctions, relating to Paratici, making the sanctions against him worldwide. The decision to ban Paratici from having any football dealings worldwide came in advance of Paratici’s appeal hearing against the FIGC sanctions, scheduled for April 19th.
The 50-year-old Italian is one of 11 former Juventus executives who were banned from Italian football after the FIGC used new evidence gathered in a separate criminal investigation, known as Prisma, to reopen a case it lost during spring last year. All eleven individuals also had their Italian Football ban extended by FIFA on Wednesday.
Paratici was initially handed a 30-month ban by the Italian FA in January.
Financial malpractice being the primary basis for this ban, Paratici and Juventus are accused of false corporate communications, false communications to the stock market and obstruction of a supervisory authority (CONSOB), with prosecutors alleging that the club’s transfer revenue was artificially inflated in a bid to balance their books.
According to public prosecutors in Turin, Juventus falsified its financial statements in the region of £150 million (€170 million/ $184 million) in booked transfer revenue between the years 2019 and 2021. Among the 11 individuals slapped with the ban included Head of Sporting Department Federico Cherubini, Chief Financial Officer at Exor NV Enrico Vellano, and members of the Board of Directors Paolo Garimberti, Assia Grazioli-Venier, Maurizio Arrivabene, Caitlin Mary Hughes, Daniela Marilungo, and Francesco Roncaglio.
The ban on the former Old Lady hierarchy executives also covered former Juventus club chairman Andrea Agnelli, who was slapped with a 24-month ban, as well as former Juventus player turned-director Pavel Nedved, whose ban time stamp was eight months. Juventus have also been handed a 15-point deduction in the domestic league, Serie A this season. All 11 executives have since denied any wrongdoing and are set to hear their appeal cases next month.
The legal mess in Northern Italy, however, has caught up with the parties in North London, as Tottenham were forced to make a decision following FIFA’s ruling on Wednesday.
A statement released by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club on Friday read: “Given FIFA’s unexpected ruling, the sanctions may now have multi-jurisdictional effect, although they are still related to the FIGC appeal. In view of FIFA’s decision, Fabio has agreed with the club that he will take an immediate leave of absence pending the outcome of his appeal.”
Paratici joined Tottenham Hotspur in June 2021 as the club’s hierarchy united former Juventus manager Antonio Conte with one of his best friends and colleagues in Fabio Paratici. Paratici helped the club finish in the top four in the 2021-22 season and had to fire Conte on Sunday this week following the team’s exits in the Champions League as well as the FA Cup.
Paratici met with players on Friday to explain the situation and confirmed to them that it had been decided, by mutual agreement with the club, that he step back from his duties pending the outcome of his April 19th appeal.
As for Tottenham, the team will now have Conte’s assistant coach Christian Stellini take charge of the men’s first team until the end of the season and will work hand-in-hand with former Tottenham midfielder turned-coach, Ryan Mason. Mason played for Spurs between 2008-16 and was the team’s interim head coach following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho in 2021.
“Christian manages the team, even when Antonio [Conte] was sick this season,” said Paratici this week. “[and] it was good. He has a lot of experience as a second [coach] and he was even a first coach some years in the past. And then we have Ryan Mason that can help him a lot because he has been a part of this club for a long time. He knows everything about this club and this group of players. We are really, really confident these two people can do a very good job.”
At the moment for Chairman Daniel Levy and the Tottenham board, however, it’s back to the drawing board as far as the director of football role is concerned. Paratici was supposed to take charge of the recruitment process for the new club manager but now leaves with the team contemplating a finish to the season without a first-team manager and a director of football.
Tottenham currently sit fourth on the Premier League table, just two points ahead of fifth-placed Newcastle United, who have two games in hand. Spurs play their next game on April 3rd when they take on Everton at Goodison Park.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Bluejam. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.