“We pay him but he didn’t do anything.” Interceptions on the case Juventus which in pills are published by the media bring out a vast parallel system, in which real and virtual money flow without limits. And this flow also passes through the agentswho in this case as in many others are something more than simple intermediaries or professionals at the service of the players.
Because they become referents for the companies in carrying out borderline manoeuvres, build promiscuous relationships with key executives, establish small fiefdoms in the youth sectors as well as in the senior ones. And, as usual, we reiterate that we must not fall into the temptation to generalize, and that it is not the figure of the agent in itself that brings deleterious effects in the world of football, but that rather it always depends on individual behavior and from the situations of promiscuity that arise.
Of this trend Juventuswhich regardless of any consideration remains the leading club of Italian football, it is a faithful representation. The agents whose names ended up in the interceptions also collected money for operations in which they did practically nothing, by admission of the Juventus managers themselves intercepted by the investigators. But then why pay them this money? And why risk operations which, as hinted by the sporting director Federico Cherubini in the course of an overheard conversation, would be doubly risky for a company listed on the Stock Exchange?
The Juventus managers should answer these questions, also because the agents whose names appear in the investigation are not suspects. The entire risk therefore rests on the shoulders of the Juventus club and its responsible executives, suspected by the Turin public prosecutor of having built “fictitious liabilities”, i.e. false invoices for paying agents. Heavy accusation that will be supported in court and with respect to which the presumption of innocence applies.
And yet, we reiterate, the weight of those words pronounced on several occasions by exponents of every order and level of the Juventus management remains. From the president who complains about the inappropriateness of paying the agent because he had practically signed the renewal of the contract with the player without the agent intervening in the least, to the head of the financial sector who complains about the ease with which 300,000 euros are paid for commissions compared to the difficulty it takes to bring them to the till.
It’s yet another piece of football’s gray economy that we of Calciomercato.com we have been complaining for a long time. And with respect to this specific segment of the gray economy we continue to ask for total transparency in the payment of commissions: who pays whom, when and how much, for which service and on which nationality of the bank account. Information that should be disclosed not only to shareholders but also to fans and the public. There was a moment when it seemed that the FIGC was opening up to this possibilityinstead of publishing each year only the total amount spent by each club on brokerages and the breakdown of transactions with agents but without specifying the figures. We are still waiting, while Italian football goes from one scandal to another.
