Tottenham director Paratici resigns after ban upheld

Tottenham managing director of football Fabio Paratici has resigned after he had his 30-month suspension from football upheld by Italy’s highest sports court on Thursday.

Juventus had their 15-point deduction suspended, lifting the club up to third in Serie A. However, the court upheld several bans on directors, including Paratici and Andrea Agnelli, although Pavel Nedved was one of six former board members whose appeals were accepted.

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Spurs said in a statement: “Yesterday, Fabio Paratici was unsuccessful with an appeal against his Italian Football Federation (FIGC) ban on certain football related activities.

“FIFA ruled to extend the ban worldwide and, whilst there continues to be a dispute as to the scope and extent of the ban, the current worldwide ban prevents Fabio from fulfilling his duties as our Managing Director of Football. Fabio has consequently taken the decision to resign from his position at the Club with immediate effect to focus on his legal position in respect of the FIGC and FIFA rulings.”

Paratici’s ban was extended worldwide by FIFA last month — which he has appealed and is still waiting to hear the result of — and Spurs announced shortly after the Italian would take a leave of absence.

His ban was issued for his part in a false accounting scandal involving Juventus, where he worked for 11 years, that led to the club’s board resigning en masse in November.

Meanwhile, Spurs’s search for a new head coach will continue without their managing director. Paratici would have been expected to play a key role in identifying and hiring sacked coach Antonio Conte‘s successor.

Cristian Stellini, the assistant to Conte, has taken charge of the team until the end of the season.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said: “This has been a stressful time for Fabio and his family. We wanted to ensure that we allowed for due process to be followed. Fabio is a man who lives and breathes football — we wish him well.

“As outlined in our year end results, we started several months ago to restructure our football operations and last week announced the appointment of Scott Munn as Chief Football Officer to head up all the departments. We shall continue to strengthen our football functions over the coming months.”