The Paratici papers: his chaotic Tottenham tenure and what follows

D aniel Levy was trying to do the right thing. In the aftermath of Antonio Conte’s sacking towards the end of March, the Tottenham chairman wanted to put out a reassuring message for supporters. He got Fabio Paratici to do the honours, the managing director of football speaking in slightly stilted English and on a poorly shot iPhone video. It ticked a box.

Less than 24 hours later, the club were blindsided by Fifa’s decision to extend Paratici’s 30-month ban from Italian football for alleged false accounting to the rest of the world. The club knew a global punishment for Paratici relating to issues from his Juventus days was a possibility, that it was maybe in the post. It was just not meant to be delivered that day.

In the middle of March, Levy had given an interview to the debating society at Cambridge, his old university. He rarely speaks in public but this was an environment in which he felt comfortable and it was an attempt to release a few positive soundbites.

It was unclear why the footage was released only on Thursday but again, it was the prelude to more bad news about Paratici. In the evening, it emerged he had lost a final appeal in relation to his sentence in Italy, a verdict that made his position at Spurs untenable, areas of jurisdiction having shifted a little mysteriously, leading to his resignation on Friday morning.

For Levy, it is called sod’s law, his timings all wrong, external forces his enemy. He respects Paratici, he wanted to back him and there was technically a route to do so. Appeal to Fifa against the worldwide extension to Paratici’s ban (this had been done), then request that the punishment be suspended during the appeal. As a final throw of the dice, Paratici’s case could be taken to the