April 29 – Fresh from seeing his European Super League dreams crushed by fan power and political intervention, Andrea Agnelli, the under-pressure president of Juventus, is already back in the spotlight – this time apparently telling an Italian prosecutor that he was not responsible for rigging an Italian language exam taken by Luis Suárez last year.
Now with Atletico Madrid, the former Barcelona striker and Uruguayan international was at one stage in talks with Juve but first needed to obtain Italian citizenship since the club had already filled their spots for non-EU players. To do that, Suarez needed to take a language and citizenship test.
Reports at the time said Suarez took an Italian exam at the university of Perugia but that university professors had given him the questions in advance.
Now, after the Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Perugia opened criminal proceedings into the affair, it seems everyone is blaming one another.
Agnelli, famously described by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin as a “liar” over his role in the Super League debacle, says the Suarez discussions were handled by Juve’s sporting director Fabio Paratici.
“Paratici was in charge of the deal,” Agnelli is quoted to have told prosecutors.
“We were in talks with several footballers, Dzeko, Milik, Cavani and Morata, who eventually signed for Juventus. At the beginning of September, I was informed that signing Suarez would have been difficult because he needed an Italian passport.”
“I don’t remember being informed about the exam, I found out through the newspapers and I remember calling Suárez just to thank him for his proposal.”
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