Tottenham are urgently seeking clarification from FIFA over the decision to hand managing director of football Fabio Paratici a worldwide ban from football.
Paratici, who was initially handed a 30-month ban from Italian football in January relating to alleged financial mismanagement at Juventus, had that extended to worldwide activities by FIFA on Wednesday.
Spurs have said they were given “no advance notice” from world football’s governing body.
“We are urgently seeking further clarification from FIFA as to the details of the extension and its variance from the FIGC [the Italian FA] penalty,” the club statement read.
“We should like to make clear that when Fabio conducted the interview on club channels yesterday neither he nor the club had any indication of this decision being made by FIFA, based on the fact the FIGC sanction was taken on 20 January 2023 and remains subject to an appeal on 19 April 2023.”
Paratici has 10 days to appeal his worldwide ban to FIFA’s appeals committee.
Sky Sports News has contacted Tottenham and the Football Association for further guidance on what this means for Paratici and his role at Spurs.
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Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol explains what the extension of Paratici’s ban to worldwide activities means for him and the club
Sky Sports News understands Paratici cannot conduct any transfer market activity directly – he cannot talk to agents nor negotiate deals, which is a fundamental part of his job as managing director of football – but he can work internally at Spurs, including attending meetings.
However, Sky Sports News are awaiting official clarification of this – such as whether he can be involved in Tottenham’s search for a new permanent manager following the departure of Antonio Conte.
Paratici, Juventus and the other officials involved have appealed the sanctions – with the result of the appeal expected later in April. The ban is in effect even while this appeal to CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) is going on.
Paratici and 11 other former Juventus officials may also face a separate criminal case – with a preliminary hearing, which was due to take place on Tuesday, postponed until May 10.
Juventus, and the 12 officials – including Paratici – deny any wrongdoing.
‘Spurs statement curious – Paratici seems to be staying’
Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:
“It is a bit of a curious statement because it looks like Paratici is staying in his position at Tottenham. This is a man who is banned from football at the moment.
“Tottenham are seeking urgent clarification from FIFA, but seeking urgent clarification on processes is not going to change the fact that Spurs’ director of football is banned from football.
“It is very clear what he can do now – he has 10 days to request the grounds of the decision from FIFA’s disciplinary committee and once those grounds have been provided to him, he can appeal against the decision to ban him worldwide from football.
“Asking FIFA for clarification on how they came to the decision is a bit of a red herring. It is not going to deal with the situation at hand.
“You could sense from the Tottenham statement that they seem frustrated by FIFA.
“But you have to look at FIFA’s statutes to discover what has gone on here. In January, Paratici and 11 other executives were banned from football by the Italian Football Federation.
“At that point the Italian Footbal Federation made it clear to anyone that was listening that they were going to ask FIFA to extend that ban – that was three months ago.
“Everyone has known that, surely people at Tottenham knew that in January as well.”
Tottenham’s remaining fixtures
April 3: Everton (A) – Premier League, kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
April 8: Brighton (H) – Premier League, 3pm kick-off
April 15: Bournemouth (H) – Premier League, 3pm kick-off
April 23: Newcastle (A) – Premier League, kick-off 2pm, live on Sky Sports
April 27: Man Utd (H) – Premier League, kick-off 8.15pm
April 30: liverpool (A) – Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm, live on Sky Sports
May 6: Crystal Palace (H) – Premier League, 3pm kick-off
May 13: Aston Villa (A) – Premier League, 3pm kick-off
May 20: Brentford (H) – Premier League, 3pm kick-off
May 28: Leeds (A) – Premier League, kick off 4.30pm