Serie A club Napoli have been accused of inflating the cost of players in the Victor Osimhen deal by €20m, according to reports.
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced that the first hearing in the court case will hold on Tuesday (today) and they hope to have a final verdict by mid-May, before the end of the Serie A season.
The transfer was was officially €71.2m, of which €20.1m was made up of four player exchanges.
However, the investigation decided the value of the players – Orestis Karnezis, Ciro Palmieri, Claudio Manzi and Luigi Liguori – was in fact €470,000, therefore inflating the cost of the operation by €19.3m.
This benefited both Napoli and Lille, as the Ligue 1 side were in financial trouble at the time and needed to show a massive profit from Osimhen’s sale.
The three youth team players never represented Lille and were released from their contracts a year later.