Inter, the Italian football champions and the current leaders, said that they are subject to a preliminary investigation into a possible fraud linked to transfer deals for players, to join their rivals, Juventus, who are similarly suspected.
Inter said in a statement on Tuesday that: “We have submitted the required documents related to the transfers of some players during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons” at the request of the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office, which carried out inspections at the club’s headquarters.
As part of this preliminary investigation, the prosecution wants to verify the regularity of the accounts of capital gains resulting from the sale of players, as indicated by the club, stressing that it adheres to strict accounting principles in its public budgets.
In addition to Inter’s offices, the Italian police’s financial unit obtained documents from the Italian Football League headquarters, also in Milan, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which opened this preliminary investigation against an unknown person due to fraudulent communications.
According to the Italian agency “ANSA”, the total amount of capital gains achieved by the judiciary is approximately 100 million euros during the two seasons concerned and relates to the sale of nearly ten players.
This operation comes a little less than a month after Juventus targeted a similar investigation.
Prosecutors in Turin are investigating Juventus and six current and former managers, including president Andrea Agnelli, his deputy and former Czech star Pavel Nedved, and former sporting director Fabio Paratici, who is currently working with Tottenham, over allegations of providing false information to investors and billing non-existent deals.
The investigation relates to approximately €282 million of reported capital gains in accounts from the past three seasons on a batch of transfers.
Local media also reported that the Public Prosecution Office is investigating the possibility that some payments to former Juventus striker, Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, were not included in the club’s latest financial results, which were announced last September and recorded a loss of nearly 210 million euros in the year until June 2021.
Investigators are particularly interested in the arrival of CR7 to Turin in the summer of 2018 for 100 million euros, and then his return to Manchester United for 15 million euros plus 8 million euros, depending on the player’s performance.
In October, the Italian Federation launched its investigation into a series of suspicious transfers, most of which are linked to Juventus, which is accused of inflating the value of some players, for reasons related to accounting or exchanging some players to arrange accounts.
