Maurizio Lombardo, Juventus‘ former general secretary, made new revelations about ‘secret’ documents he kept in a briefcase and Fabio Paratici: ‘He would buy players just to prevent other clubs from doing it.’
Lombardo left the club in October 2020 after nine years. La Repubblica newspaper reports part of his interrogation with the Turin Prosecutors investigating Juventus’ finances.
Lombardo sat down with investigators on February 17, 2023, and made new revelations about the inflated transfer values allegedly used by the Old Lady to balance the books.
“Paratici had a thirst for domination, he would buy some players just to prevent others from doing it and he also called me at night,” he said, according to the report.
“Some clubs acted as ‘banks’ helping Juventus make capital gains and I kept the side letters in a briefcase which I always kept with me. We could not register the documents within Lega Calcio, otherwise, we could not register a capital gain under the new rules.
“Most clubs wanted a buy-back clause, which we could not grant because the capital gain can’t be registered until the option is valid,” continued Lombardo.
“Juventus directors asked me to keep the documents which should not have been found. The text was written by Gabasio who had acquired more power after Marotta’s exit.”
Lombardo is not under investigation and was interrogated as a ‘person informed about the matter.’
He also mentioned some deals made with Atalanta: “€14.5m in total, €4m for Mattiello, €4m for Muratore, €3.5m for Caldara and €3m for Romero. Players knew about the agreements, and the written documents would be the guarantee.”
Lombardo added that there were similar agreements also for [Riccardo] Orsolini, [Meirh] Demiral, [Hamad] Traoré, [Erasmo] Mulè, [Emil] Audero, [Daouda] Peeters, [Alberto] Cerri Cagliari and [Rolando] Mandragora.
“With Mandragora, they realised they could not register a capital gain because of a buy-back clause. Marotta was still at the club. I asked why we had to sign him back if he’d never played for Juventus and I was told ‘because we have an obligation.'”
The criminal investigation from the Turin Prosecutors has nothing to do with Juventus’ 15-point penalty, which the FIGC Court of appeal has handed.
The Turin Prosecutors are looking into Juventus’ capital gains and the two salary manoeuvres. The preliminary hearing for the Prisma investigation will take place on March 27.