Serie A champions Juventus have revealed that the club’s Sporting Director Fabio Paratici is being investigated on suspicion for an alleged attempt to manipulate procedures for Uruguay striker, Luis Suarez, to gain Italian citizenship.
Suarez, who was a transfer target for Juve during the summer, underwent the exam at the University for Foreigners in Perugia and passed. He was eligible to take the exam through his wife who is of Italian descent.
The Turin based team hoped to sign Suarez from Barcelona but needed him to acquire Italian citizenship to avoid exceeding the Serie A’s permitted number of non-EU players, but suspicions of preferential treatment were soon raised in the media.
Juventus have proceeded to deny any wrongdoing via a statement, stating they were confident that the ongoing investigation will eventually prove Paratici’s innocence.
Perugia’s Chief Prosecutor Raffaele Cantone also released a statement accusing Juventus of “taking action, even at the highest institutional levels, to ‘speed up’ the granting of Italian citizenship for Suarez.”
“It emerged that the contents of the test had been communicated in advance to the player himself and the result and the score of the exam had been predetermined in order to correspond to the requests made by Juventus,” read the prosecutor’s statement.
The university has also denied any wrongdoing and suspended four of its officials as a precautionary measure.
Prosecutors say they are still in the process of investigating whether “individuals other than those belonging to the university” may have committed any atrocities.
Having only performed the oral part of his exam, Suarez’s examiner said the 33-year-old obtained an intermediate B1 qualification required for citizenship in just 15 minutes.
A move to Juventus did not materialize eventually for Suarez as he opted to stay in La Liga with Atletico Madrid instead, with Juventus signing Spaniard Alvaro Morata.
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