Italian prosecutors have called for Napoli and its owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, to face trial for false accounting related to player transfers, including the deal for Serie A title hero Victor Osimhen.
Prosecutors in Rome allege that Napoli, De Laurentiis, and one of his key advisors, Andrea Chiavelli, submitted falsified financial records between 2019 and 2021.
The investigation focuses on the transfers of Kostas Manolas from Roma and Osimhen from Lille.
The 70-million-euro transfer for Nigerian striker Osimhen, now on loan at Galatasaray, raised concerns due to four players valued at approximately 20 million euros being sent to Lille, with three of them never playing for the French club.
Lawyers for Napoli and De Laurentiis have described the decision to request a trial as “incomprehensible.”
“In the documents there are opinions from consultants and independent bodies which demonstrate incontrovertibly that Napoli acted legitimately and in compliance with Italian accounting principles,” said Fabio Fulgeri and Lorenzo Contrada.
“We are convinced that the proceedings will conclude positively (for Napoli and De Laurentiis).”
A preliminary hearing judge will decide within six months whether the alleged offences are worthy of a criminal trial which would likely take years to complete.
However, a source at Napoli told AFP that the documents in the prosecutors’ trial request have already been ruled as containing nothing incriminating by disciplinary authorities at Italy’s football federation (FIGC).
The source said that there is “no chance” of Napoli being penalised by the FIGC even if the club were eventually found guilty in criminal courts, and added that they were confident a trial wouldn’t even take place.
– Scudetto star –
Osimhen was a key figure in Napoli’s success, playing a pivotal role in their victory of a third Serie A title—the first since the days of Diego Maradona.
The team stormed to the Scudetto with five matches to spare in 2023.
Alongside breakout star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Osimhen scored 26 goals in Serie A that season, solidifying his reputation as one of the world’s top strikers.
However, despite his success, he soon expressed a desire to move on, publicly stating his ambition to play in England’s Premier League.
After failing to secure a transfer last summer, Osimhen was sidelined before being controversially loaned to Galatasaray in September.
His transfer to Italy was part of a series of deals investigated by the FIGC, though all defendants, including Napoli and De Laurentiis, were acquitted in April 2022.
However, the investigation uncovered broader issues, and just over a year later, Juventus was docked 10 points after being found guilty of inflating transfer values to artificially boost their balance sheet.
Juventus’ punishment stemmed from new evidence uncovered in a separate criminal investigation, “Operation Prism,” which focused on the club’s accounting practices.
Several Juventus figures, including former chairman Andrea Agnelli, were handed lengthy football bans and now await a decision next month on whether they will face criminal charges.