Fabio Paratici, managing director of football at Tottenham Hotspur, has resigned from his position following an unsuccessful appeal of his global ban.
The club’s chairman, Daniel Levy, disclosed that the process had taken a toll on the Italian. While his appeal was being considered, Paratici had taken a leave of absence from his role but now that the decision has been confirmed he has chosen to step down officially.
The two-and-a-half-year ban which prevents Paratici from participating in football-related activities was initially imposed after he was allegedly involved in financial irregularities while holding a similar position at Juventus. However, Juventus had its 15-point deduction in Serie A rescinded on Thursday and the appeals of former player and director Pavel Nedved, as well as those of Paolo Garimberti and Enrico Vellano were also upheld.
“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.”.
Levy contributed his own words to the statement, saying:
“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.”
