Fabio Paratici has had his 30-month ban from football activity, initially imposed by the Italian FA, applied worldwide by FIFA to place Tottenham Hotspur's search for a manager into chaos.
The Spurs managing director of football was implicated in a false accounting scandal at former club Juventus, leading to suspensions being handed down to a dozen key officials including owner Andrea Agnelli and Pavel Nedved.
Paratici, 50, is meant to be coordinating the north London club's recruitment of a new head coach having sacked Antonio Conte earlier this week. Yet the financial malpractice ban is now set to prohibit him from being involved in that process. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing during his time at Spurs, whom he joined in June 2021, and Juventus have continuously and vehemently denied the charges.
FIFA said in a statement: “FIFA can confirm that following a request by the Italian FA (FIGC), the chairperson of FIFA disciplinary committee has decided to extend the sanctions imposed by FIGC on several football officials to have worldwide effect.”
Juventus were deducted 15 league points in January at the conclusion of the long-running Prisma investigation that ended with a hearing at Italy's federal court of appeal. Paratici subsequently appealed the ban to Italy's Olympic Committee.
Tottenham are yet to comment and it is unclear when they learnt of this development. The club's website published an extended interview with Paratici on Tuesday night in which he discussed Conte's departure, Cristian Stellini being placed in interim charge and plans for next season.
That suggests they only learnt of the worldwide ban late on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning but either way it will be a huge source of embarrassment to the club in a week where Conte was dismissed following his remarkable outburst in the draw at Southampton before the international break.
During the in-house interview Paratici said of Conte: "We know how difficult this season was for him personally, Gian Piero [Ventrone] died and [Gianluca] Vialli and then his surgery. The club supported him a lot with it and everyone is close to each other but then we arrive in this mutual agreement, and I think the decision that we made was the right decision for everyone."
He then went on to say that it was wrong to comment on "media speculation" about the search for a new head coach because the entire focus should be on the team finishing the season strongly and qualifying for the Champions League.
Asked if he had a message for supporters yesterday, Paratici said: "My message for the supporters is to continue to support like they have done until now because they are really amazing and support to the team, support Cristian, Ryan, all the staff. 10 games to go and, to achieve our target, we need the fans, of course."
