Roma sack CEO after transfer probe

Roma announced on Monday that they had sacked their CEO as prosecutors investigate the Serie A club’s past transfer dealings.

In a short statement, Roma said that Pietro Berardi had been terminated from his role at the club and other businesses within its parent company Friedkin Group, “with immediate effect”.

Roma did not say why Berardi, who had been CEO since October 2021, had been removed.

Earlier this month, police carried out searches at their offices as part of an investigation into transfers from between 2017 and 2021, when the capital club were still listed on the Milan stock exchange.

Similar searches were also carried out on the same day at the offices of fellow top-flight outfits Lazio and Salernitana.

Transfer dealings have been one of the major scandals in Italian football over the past year, with Juventus docked 15 points in January for using transactions to artificially boost their balance sheet.

An appeal on that ruling will be heard on April 19.

Juve are embroiled in a criminal investigation over their finances, with the club and a raft of former directors including former chairman Andrea Agnelli accused of a variety of crimes.

Prosecutors in Naples are also carrying out an probe into the big money deal which took Victor Osimhen to Napoli from Lille. 

That transfer included four players valued at around 20 million euros moving to Lille, three of whom never played for the French club.