Rome (Reuters)
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has ended its investigation into the alleged tampering of a language test taken by Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, prior to a possible move to Juventus last year.
The Italian Federation said in a statement that it will close the case until it receives new evidence, as there is not enough evidence to prove a breach of the federal sports system.
Italian prosecutors said they had evidence of tampering with the language test that Barcelona striker Suarez had taken to obtain Italian citizenship before a possible transfer to Juventus in September 2020.
Suarez, who is married to a woman of Italian descent, passed the test at the University for Foreigners in Perugia.
This was a quick way to obtain citizenship, enabling Juventus to sign the Uruguayan striker without exceeding the specified quota for players from outside the European Union.
But doubts soon arose in the media about Suarez’s privileged treatment.
The public prosecutor in Perugia, Raffaele Cantone, said that investigations revealed that the questions had been agreed upon with Suarez before the exam, and that the score had already been determined, despite his lack of Italian language proficiency.
The university denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement that its actions were “transparent and correct” and that it was confident that this would be proven at the end of the investigation.
Suarez obtained the required score for citizenship within 15 minutes, and Musharraf said after the test that he only needed to take the oral part of the exam.
Other naturalization applicants who took a B1 test on the same day in Rome had to complete a written paper over the course of two and a half hours.
And Suarez eventually moved to Atletico Madrid.
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