An investigation is underway in Italy regarding alleged irregularities in Luis Suarez‘s citizenship test earlier this year according to a report in Football Italia.
The Uruguayan striker underwent a test in Italy as part of his potential move to Juventus, only to end up joining Atletico Madrid instead from Barcelona.
Suarez underwent the test at the University of Perugia as Juventus had already filled all their slots for non-EU players and obtaining Italian citizenship would have enabled the club to navigate around that restriction.
Perugia’s Prosecutor Office confirmed on Friday the suspension for eight months from the exercise of public offices for the Rector of the University Giuliana Grego, the University’s CEO Simone Olivieri and professors Stefania Spina and Lorenzo Rocca “for the offence of disclosure of professional secrecy aimed at undue profit and multiple ideological falsehoods in public acts.
“It emerged that the contents of the test had been communicated in advance to the player, in order to arrive at a predetermined outcome and examination score to meet the requests that had been made by Juventus, with the aim of achieving a positive image return, both personal and for the University,” the Prosecutor’s statement reads.
“Investigations have also allowed us to understand how, in the first days of September 2020, the management of the Turin club was activated, even at the highest institutional levels, to accelerate recognition of Italian citizenship of Suarez. This suggests new hypotheses of crime against persons other than those belonging to the university, still in the process of study.”
Suarez has been in fine form for Atletico in the early stages of this campaign, netting five goals in his opening six appearances for the team in La Liga.
He’s been absent in recent times after testing positive for Coronavirus, but is expected to return to action soon after making a full recovery.
Atletico are currently second in La Liga, a point behind Real Sociedad with two games in hand. Los Rojiblancos face Real Valladolid tomorrow evening.
Featured image courtesy of The Guardian.
