Ex-PSG chiefs threatened with suspended jail terms

Prosecutors on Monday demanded suspended jail sentences and fines against two former presidents of French club Paris Saint-Germain over suspect transfer dealings at the club.

Prosecutor Bruno Nataf requested that Francis Graille receive a one-year suspended sentence and be fined 25,000 euros and Laurent Perpere 18 months and a 40,000-euros fine.

They had been charged with “forgery and use of forgeries” and “concealed employment” along with 15 others including players and agents over transfers at the high-profile Ligue 1 club between 1998 and 2003.

The club have been accused of “altering documents, failure to declare players’ salaries and use of forgeries” and sportswear giant Nike France of “use of forgeries and aiding and abetting concealed employment”.

Nataf also requested that former PSG financial director Pierre Frelota receive a suspended 12-month sentence and be fined 20,000 euros.

PSG have been ordered to pay a 150,000-euros fine and Nike France 120,000, while Nataf called for both organisations to publish the tribunal’s decision on their websites and in a French sport newspaper, “preferably the Monday edition”.

Of the numerous agents being pursued the heaviest penalties requested were against Ranko Stojic, Milan Calasan, Henri Henrotay, Jose Maria Minguella and Roberto Rodriguez, who each face an eight-month suspended sentence and fines of between 20,000 and 30,000 euros.

Prosecutors have spent the past four years investigating the alleged system of illegal employment practices in the French side.

During the period, 24 players including Lionel Letizi, Andre Luiz and Romain Rocchi and two coaches allegedly benefitted from the system to the tune of nine million euros.