A report in the New York Times claims that agent Fali Ramadani signed contracts with the Della Valle brothers to sell five Fiorentina players, without informing Rocco Commisso.
The deal was reportedly done just before the club takeover last summer and only discovered after Commisso’s team went through the paperwork later on.
A report in the New York Times claims that agent Fali Ramadani signed contracts with the Della Valle brothers to sell five Fiorentina players, without informing Rocco Commisso.
The deal was reportedly done just before the club takeover last summer and only discovered after Commisso’s team went through the paperwork later on.
“The agreements, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times, effectively gave a soccer agent, named in February as part of a money laundering investigation in Spain, permission to find buyers for at least five members of Fiorentina’s roster.
“In return, the agent would be paid a commission. If Fiorentina balked at completing any deal the agent brought to the club, he would receive a penalty fee instead.”
The agent named in the report is Fali Ramadani and his company, Primus Sports, but the players supposedly to be sold include Dusan Vlahovic and Nikola Milenkovic, current regulars in the team.
“This agreement seems to guarantee a payment to the agency no matter whether a transfer actually takes place,” said Roy Vermeer, the legal director at FIFPro, the worldwide union for professional players.
“It’s hard to understand the reason why any club would agree to this.”
Ramadani has recently been embroiled in a Spanish investigation into money-laundering in sport.
Former Fiorentina director of sport Pantaleo Corvino told the New York Times that the rapport with Ramadani was profitable for the club, as they had previously sold players such as Stevan Jovetic, Matija Nastasic and Adem Ljajic for huge sums.
“What has been agreed has always been done within the rules and in the interest of Fiorentina,” Corvino said in a series of text messages over WhatsApp.