D’Onofrio case, heavy accusations for Trentalange: what happens now

The storm on the refereeing world does not subside. The federal prosecutor’s office has issued an act closing the investigation into the president of The Hague Alfredo Trentalange and the accusations are very heavy. It all starts with the D’Onofrio case, arrested on 10 November for international drug trafficking. Investigating the former chief prosecutor of The Hague, Giuseppe Chiné, who heads the FIGC prosecutor’s office, he discovered a series of violations of the Code of sports justice and the Hague Regulations.

Personal relationship

—

According to the indictment, Trentalange had “direct responsibility for the appointments of the heads of the AIA justice bodies” and then “failed to take any initiative, even the most minimal, aimed and aimed at ascertaining the real professional and moral requirements of Mr. Rosario D’Onofrio before the proposal, made by Trentalange himself, and consequent appointment by the Hague National Committee (in March 2021), as Arbitration Prosecutor of The Hague, omissive behavior, followed by the commission of the proposal, which led to the appointment of D’Onofrio – with whom Trentalange had a consolidated long-standing personal relationship (it was in fact he who reported it to President Nicchi for the purpose of his appointment as a member of the National Disciplinary Commission on 7 March 2009, the first assignment held by D’Onofrio in a sports justice body) – to a senior position in an important domestic justice body Aia (National Prosecutor Aia) while the appointed was detained under house arrest at his home in Garbagnate Milanese because he was sentenced to a definitive sentence of 2 years and 8 months of imprisonment and a fine of 6,000 euros for very serious crimes concerning the possession of approximately 44 kg of narcotic substances”.

Calls and awards

—

It’s not all. Chiné also accuses him of “contacting by telephone the vice-president of the National Disciplinary Commission Andrea Santoni, who, finding negligence and professional inadequacy on the part of D’Onofrio as a member of the aforementioned Commission, had invited the latter in writing to behave more appropriately to the functions performed, asking him not to take new initiatives against Rosario D’Onofrio, and in doing so – to protect D’Onofrio, to whom he was evidently linked by a consolidated personal relationship – interfered with the activity, prerogatives, autonomy and the independence of a sports justice body”. And again, Trentalange allegedly “failed to take any initiative, even the most minimal, aimed and aimed at checking the possession of the professional and moral requisites necessary for the attribution to Mr. Rosario D’Onofrio of important honors and prizes (meritorious referee and the Lo Bello Concetto prize), while D’Onofrio was held under house arrest and consequently proposing and having D’Onofrio awarded honors and prizes in the sports-arbitration field incompatible with his status as a prisoner and, more generally, with his serious criminal record”.

Falsified refunds

—

No initiative also to “ascertain and consequently intervene so that Mr. Rosario D’Onofrio, who in the course of carrying out his office of Prosecutor of The Hague (from March 2021 to November 10 2022, date of the second arrest), participated only in very few face-to-face meetings (17 June 2021, 1 April 2022, 5 September 2022) at the headquarters of the Aia Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome” and there would also be a lack of “directives, service orders or operational protocols that could ensure standards of transparency and administrative correctness, time and aimed at the execution in The Hague of a control activity on the reimbursement of expenses (…), behavior that has facilitated the illicit activity of Rosario D’Onofrio, who – for the exercise of his functions from March 2021 to August 2022 – submitted requests for reimbursement of expenses by attaching forged train tickets, and never issued by the transport service management company, creating economic damage or of significant entity to the FIGC and the Hague”.

Unreliable resignations

—

Then there is the chapter on the resignation of D’Onofrio himself. The deed drawn up by Chiné states that Trentalange is guilty “of having communicated and distributed a document during the Hague National Committee meeting in Caltanissetta on November 12, 2022 (a news later reported by the national press) apparently containing Rosario’s resignation from the Hague D’Onofrio, dated November 9, 2022 and signed “Rosario D’Onofrio”, document sent from the e-mail account in use to the Attorney’s brother, without having previously completed the slightest check aimed at ascertaining the reliability and truthfulness of the document and its content”, given that D’Onofrio “on the date of sending the document by his brother was already detained in prison”; “on the date of the apparent signing of the document (November 9, 2022) he was in Rome, at the headquarters in The Hague to perform his functions as Prosecutor and there he had not expressed to anyone his intention to resign”; “the signature affixed at the bottom of the document, completely different in form and invoice, from those affixed to other documents”.

“untruthful” statements

—

Over here? Not at all. Trentalange is also accused of “making untruthful statements” during the Federal Council meeting of 15 November “in relation to the successful acquisition of a curriculum vitae of Rosario D’Onofrio before her appointment as Attorney at the Hague, the educational and professional qualifications possessed by the latter and to the alleged, but non-existent, self-certifications made by the same”.

Gravina takes action

—

It seems evident that Trentalange’s position is compromised after such accusations. A few days ago the Minister of Sport Abodi had declared that he was “surprised that nobody felt the need to make themselves available”, now the situation can only get worse. The president of the FIGC Gabriele Gravina has already convened a federal council for 19 December which in item 4 of the agenda has the “situation of the Italian Referees Association: consequent measures”. In short, something must be done. Even if it is only a conclusion of the investigations, against whose accusations Trentalange has every right to defend himself, various profiles of responsibility emerge which in fact, for a figure such as that of the president of the arbitrators, theoretically the first guarantors of the system, already have compromised credibility. Also because the Public Prosecutor’s Office has collected a large amount of material, from the examination of the documents of the Milan DDA which carried out the investigation that led to the arrest of D’Onofrio, to the hearing of various witnesses up to the collection of probative material inside the AIA offices. Gravina feels he has a great responsibility, towards the referees but also towards a football system that needs maximum transparency. The best solution for everyone, at this point, is that of Trentalange’s resignation. But if he continues to consider himself and to consider The Hague as an “injured party” in the D’Onofrio case, the hypothesis of receivership could forcefully come back into play.