Let’s put an end to these capital gains – Contrasti Magazine

So let’s first briefly recap the story for those who – understandably – missed a few steps. In early 2023, Juventus was convicted in the capital gains case. All this, according to prosecutor Chiné, because, unlike the other clubs (and their hypothetical fictitious spot capital gains), the Juventus had a real “system” in place. An absolutely unprovable theorem, legally contradictory, but ultra-demagogic and certainly a media success, fed into social media and newspapers, which were able to enjoy it extensively.

The trivial truth is that only for Juventus was there any “proof” of the change in the value of the players (and therefore the balance sheet): Evidence from wiretapped telephone conversations in which the Juventus managers were involved. We are talking about authorized wiretapping since Consob, Juventus being a listed company, had asked for clarification of some suspicious transactions and from then on the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office had started the environmental wiretapping.

It was clear to us from the start: There was no Juventus system, outlined as if it were the “dome”; The club had simply, like others, perhaps more than others, exploited the artificiality of fictitious capital gains and inflated valuations when selling players.

However, the problem is different. They took advantage of the black hole of capital gains systematically – If there was a “system”, whatever that means, it was quite common – many clubs at home: Unclear events are attributable to Inter (who therefore booked it in the budget). Dozens and dozens million) to Napoli, Roma, Milan, Atalanta, Genoa, Sampdoria, Sassuolo, Lazio/Salernitana etc. The classic Italian situation in which, in a kind of legal vacuum or in any case in a very poorly defined and definable framework – who shows the true value of the player? And how does he demonstrate it? – everyone took advantage of it by adjusting their balance sheets as best they could. A patch to fill the gaps in a generally disastrous financial situation.

What happened now is that the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office has investigated Aurelio De Laurentiis for the fictitious capital gain from the Osimhen deal, in particular the allegation of false information in the annual financial statements. Well, it is clear that it was a capital gain constructed on the table: when could Manzi, Palmieri and Liguori (who play in Serie C, Serie D and Eccellenza) be worth 15 million euros? However, one thing must always be remembered: judgments are not made based on logical conclusions or common sense. Evidence is needed and this is where the situation becomes complicated.

For Juventus, as already mentioned, the evidence lay in the “confessions” of wiretapped telephone conversations and emails. But for Napoli? We don’t know this yet, probably the public prosecutor’s office (of Rome, because the club’s budget was approved here) relied on it Testify of the three young people who admitted “I’ve never been to Lille». Is that in itself evidence of that? We’ll think of something. The fact is that six months ago the president and managers of Napoli they were acquitted Due to the impossibility of verifying the allegations made by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, ADL has now been entered into the suspect register by the sports justice system.

A proper actit is stated.

However, one has the feeling that a monster has now been set in motion and an avalanche that is difficult to control has been triggered. That even if there is nothing at the moment, we dig everywhere to satisfy the more or less popular justice instincts and find something that “demonstrates” in a thousand quotes the fact that the fees were increased to fix the budgets . That’s why we write it clearly: enough, let’s end it here. At least in this story of excessive capital gains, an aspect so negligible and marginal that it is almost harmless for the budgets of Italian football.

Even for football, it’s all so sad: After the mathematicians and scientists, the judges, magistrates and auditors came to the ball. Not that they shouldn’t be there, for heaven’s sake, but they investigate far more serious issues than inflated capital gains. And as far as fans and journalists are concerned, the first ones should stop demanding exemplary punishments Revocations of championships – also for the one who casts the first stone, who is without sin – and for the seconds to report this story and make big headlines and pages about it.

Let’s put it the Neapolitan way: who had, who gave, who gave,oncescurdammuce o’ passat.

And let’s do it the Italian way: we tolerate everything, but without fines or anything like that, maybe we’ll start again clearer rules and stricter limits for evaluating footballers – We can rely on independent and regulatory bodies, national or international, or find other solutions, this is not our job. Let us go beyond this, let us forget, let us breathe; Let us give up the ax of this frustrated justice system and, above all, suppress our instincts for revenge disguised as the common good.

Of course, inflated capital gains was not the best nor the most correct method of budget adjustment, but it was used to some extent by all major clubs as long as it was possible: some more, some less. And without being gracious, we guarantee you that it is the last thing we do – Fans and lovers of Italian football – we should live out our moral instincts. Also from the specific perspective of club budgets.

In a country where a club president (Lotito) is elected to parliament and manages to get one Change to save football Contrary to the opinion of the Minister of Economic Affairs and the statements of the heads of government, change with which the state forgoes one billion in revenue in order to distribute the debts of football clubs, in one of the most indebted leagues in the world, we’re still outraged here about capital gains, a little trick our clubs have cleverly tried to get away with. And all this not from a legalistic spirit, but to see the opponents of the day punished: yesterday it was Juve, today it is Napoli, tomorrow it will be Inter, Lazio, Milan or Rome.

Also because if we start with the ideology and method of fictitious capital gains, the risk is to uncover a Pandora’s box made up of dozens of questionable operations that would end up creating a useless and actually harmful general chaos. You really want a year where we talk about it, in which we once again go into all the dubious activities of our clubs? Which ones and until when? Let’s spare ourselves the petty soap opera, which would be another unnecessary spectacle of our (extra) football. And instead, without the drug of fictional capital gains, let’s think about how we can really bring these budgets to life.