Capital gains Juve, Lombardo and the briefcase

Maurizio Lombardo was the general secretary of Juventus between 2011 and 2020, one of the men chosen by Beppe Marotta to strengthen the structure. On February 17, he was heard in the Turin prosecutor’s office, as part of the Prisma investigation, as a person informed about the facts. In answering the questions of the prosecutors who are digging into the Juventus club’s accounts, he reconstructed how some friendly clubs acted as a ‘bank’ to allow Juve to make capital gains. “I kept the side letters in a briefcase, always with me, even at home. They were not deposited in the League, otherwise with the new rules the capital gain could not be recorded – he explained -. All the sporting directors wanted a buy backbut the capital gain could not be recorded until the condition expired”.

THE HEARING

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According to what Lombardo described, “Paratici had cravings for omnipotence, he wanted to buy players also through other teams to hinder the others and he also called me at night”. On the side letters that he allegedly kept, the former Juve secretary said that “the Juventus managers told me to keep them because it’s better that they didn’t come out. The text was prepared by Gabasio, whose role has grown after Marotta, who was more cautious After him there was no operation he held”. During the hearing, Lombardo referred to some specific operations: “With Atalanta 14.5 million euros: 4 for Mattiello, 4 for Muratore, 3.5 for Caldara and 3 for Romero. The players knew about the agreements – he said -, the writings were reassurances. Even for Orsolini, Demiral, Traoré, Mulè, Audero, Peeters, Cerri with Cagliari and Mandragora with Udinese for 20 million euros: they realize that with this buy back they could no longer register her right away. A strange contract, it was still Marotta’s period and I asked: why are we taking him back that he will never play for Juve? They told me we had an obligation.”