FABIO PARATICI thanked the Tottenham fans for their support after returning to the club following his long football ban.
The Italian served as Spurs’ managing director of football between 2021 and 2023 but resigned after being suspended for 30 months due to accusations of financial malpractice at old club Juventus.
He had been working for Tottenham in recent months in a consultancy role.
But the 53-year-old is now back in an official capacity with the North Londoners, becoming a co-sporting director alongside Johan Lange, who has been promoted from technical director.
Paratici paid tribute to supporters “showing him love” throughout his two-and-a-half year ban, as well as Spurs’ owner the Lewis family and CEO Vinai Venkatesham.
He said: “It’s a great feeling. I would like to be thankful and grateful to the Lewis family, to Vinai, to Johan, to all the employees that supported me in this period and make me feel a part of this family even when I wasn’t full-time in the club.
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“I want to thank even the fans because they make me feel really important for them, they supported me everywhere when I met them.
They showed me their love and it means a lot to me. For this reason, this club is really special for me.”
Paratici was one of 11 former Juventus executives suspended by the Italian Football Federation following an investigation into historical transfer and accounting matters at the Old Lady.
The sanction related to inflation of transfer fees for accounting purposes and later extended by Fifa and recognised by Uefa.
Paratici entered a plea deal, which involved no admission or finding of guilt nor any acceptance of liability.
SunSport revealed back in May that Paratici would be coming back in an official capacity and now the ban is over, that has been confirmed.
Spurs have decided to make him a co-sporting director alongside Lange because they feel the role has a wide enough brief that it is best served by having more than one person fill it.
Chief executive Venkatesham said: “For Fabio in particular it’s been a really challenging personal last two years or so for him.
“He’s just delighted to be back in football and back here at Spurs.”
Lange, who has been hailed as a data whizz, will be focused on scouting, performance, football insights, performance analysis and the academy.
The remit of Paratici, famed for his talent-spotting, is more on players and the transfer window, as well as the loans and pathways department.
The duo will work together on everything that falls under the sporting director brief, specifically collaborating on squad planning and player recommendations for Thomas Frank’s team.
‘COMPLETELY RELAXED’
Venkatesham added: “I’ve spoken to Thomas about this a lot and he’s completely relaxed about it and happy with where we’re going. He has explained to me that this structure of working into two people is something he’s very familiar with. He had a very similar structure at Brentford. He has very good relationships with Johan and Fabio. He’s really looking forward to get going.”
Cynics might say having two bosses sharing one role could lead to tension.
But Venkatesham welcomes healthy debate and feels the two skillsets of his sporting directors complement each other well.
The former Arsenal supremo added: “We are going to have lots of big, important decisions ahead to drive the football club forward and I’m a firm believer in having more voices and opinions to make the right decisions.
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“I think having Johan and Fabio in roles will mean that we will make better decisions.
“With Johan and Fabio we are bringing together two individuals who are very talented but also have slightly different experience and expertise and I think they’ll form a very good team.”
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