CorSport: Three crucial factors – the background on why Paratici to Milan fell apart

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·11 April 2025

CorSport: Three crucial factors – the background on why Paratici to Milan fell apart

Fabio Paratici seemed destined to become AC Milan’s new sporting director, then everything fell through. A report has revealed the background story.

Corriere dello Sport speak this morning of ‘federal pressure’ being the reason that Paratici did not arrive at Milan, as clarified by the reconstruction of some background confirmed by federal sources that the paper have been able to corroborate.

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The first factor

First clue: at the beginning of April, while he was busy in Belgrade with the works of the UEFA congress that then elected him vice-president to Aleksander Čeferin, Gabriele Gravina received a phone call from Paolo Scaroni.

The president of Milan asked him for a preventive opinion on the regulatory issue related to Paratici’s sporting ban, expiring on July 20th. Gravina repeated, on that occasion, the same statement he had made officially on Wednesday morning in Milan, speaking at a conference on youth football:

“Paratici can be contracted by Milan, but he can only operate from July 21st,” As if to say: if you move, I’ll strike you down. From here, the alarm went off at Milan and it was decided to interrupt the negotiations, which had reached a very advanced stage.

The drafting of the contracts had been completed and sent to the respective lawyers for approval, showing how far things had pushed ahead.

Second piece of the puzzle

Paratici’s activism had already come under the spotlight of the Football Federation in the previous months, at the time of the rumours about his consultancy at Sampdoria. There were no consequences for a practical reason, as per sources: ‘We have not had proof of such collaboration’.

The FIGC’s behaviour was different when the press reports on the London talks between Milan and Paratici became more frequent and achieved great media coverage with the episode of the meeting in a Milan hotel with an agent (Edo Crnjar, who represents Roberto De Zerbi).

On that occasion, the office of the federal president Gravina sent the report to the federal prosecutor. To simplify, the governing body of Italian football were concerned that Paratici might be increasing his operations before the expiry of his ban.

Third detail

There has often been talk of a letter of denunciation from ADISA (Associazione Italiana Direttori Sportivi), the association that grouped together the sporting directors against Paratici, which they denied.

A letter arrived in Rome but not from Adise, rather from Adicosp, which is the competing association of Adise (literally the Italian association of sports directors, secretaries and collaborators) which is recognised by the president Gabriele Gravina himself.

Finally, Beppe Marotta – the president of Inter and Adise, who had Paratici as his main collaborator in the at Sampdoria and Juve – contributed to closing the case yesterday. He denied having any involvement, but admitted Paratici at Milan would ‘p*ss him off’.