Serie A Napoli could be fined or have points taken away if they are found to have engaged in false accounting when signing Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen from Lille in 2020, according to a report from PUNCH Sports Extra.
On Wednesday, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was questioned as part of an inquiry into the transfer of the 25-year-old.
When the Partenopei signed the former Wolfsburg player in September 2020, the deal was valued at €76,356,819, which included the apparent market value of four players who moved to Lille as part of the transfer.
The market value for these players totals around €20m, with Ciro Palmieri valued at €7,026,349, Orestis Karnez at €5,128,205, Luigi Liguori at €4,071,247, and Claudio Manzi at €4,021,762. Investigators claim that these market values were exaggerated to improve Napoli’s financial records.
According to the Italian publication Il Messaggero, if Napoli are found guilty, they could receive a fine or have points deducted.
“There are three possible outcomes: a new acquittal, a fine, or a slight penalty in the league rankings,” part of the report stated.
Calciomercato.com described how De Laurentiis arrived at the FIGC prosecutor’s office in Rome on Wednesday with his lawyer Fabio Fulgeri and was questioned for 90 minutes by deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini as part of the false accounting investigation.
One of the players involved in the transfer, Liguori, commented on the situation in 2021.
“It wasn’t a deal made for us, for our futures. It was for something else. We were pushed out of Napoli feeling ‘guilty’ because we didn’t know anything,” he said.
Osimhen recently signed a new contract with Napoli in December, with his release clause set at around €130m. The Nigeria international is expected to leave Naples this summer for a club in the English Premier League or Paris Saint-Germain in France.
