Italy police probe Roma, Lazio, Salernitana over transfer dealings

Police carried out searches at the offices of Serie A clubs Roma, Lazio and Salernitana on Wednesday as part of a probe into their past transfer dealings.

The investigation into Roma concerns transfers made between 2017 and 2021, when the capital club were still listed on the Milan stock exchange.

Roma said on Wednesday that the club and “some current and former directors” — reportedly including former chairman James Pallotta and his successor Dan Friedkin — were subject to the investigation.

“The club is cooperating with the authorities and hopes that full clarity on the matter will come as soon as possible,” Roma said in a statement.

The searches at Lazio and Salernitana regard deals made between those two clubs over the period when they were both owned by Lazio owner Claudio Lotito.

News agency AGI reports that Lazio are being investigated for issuing invoices for non-existent transactions and false accounting.

In a statement, Lazio said their documentation “is always available to the authorities” and that they hope “any misunderstandings or doubt in relation to the suspected offences are quickly dispelled”.

Businessman Lotito was forced to relinquish Salernitana to trustees in June 2021 after promotion from Serie B as Italian FA rules banned him from owning two clubs in the same division.

An end-of-year deadline for sale to new ownership was put in place, and the club would have been kicked out of the league had a bid from Danilo Iervolino not been accepted at the last minute.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Salernitana said “the current ownership has nothing to do with the transfers being investigated as they relate to the seasons before the club changed hands”.

Transfer trickery has become one of the major scandals in Italian football over the past year, with Juventus docked 15 points in January for using transactions to artificially boost their balance sheet.

An appeal on that ruling will be heard on April 19.

Juve are also embroiled in a criminal investigation over their finances, with the club and a raft of former directors including former chairman Andrea Agnelli accused of a variety of crimes.

AFP