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Italian football is set to face another high-profile courtroom dispute after Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was ordered to stand trial over alleged financial misconduct linked to two major player transfers. The charges focus on suspected irregularities in the club’s accounting records related to the signings of Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen and Greek defender Kostas Manolas.
According to reports in the Italian press, the preliminary hearing judge in Rome accepted a request to prosecute De Laurentiis and Andrea Chiavelli, a senior Napoli executive often referred to as his “right-hand man.” They are accused of manipulating financial statements in the club’s balance sheets for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Lawyers representing De Laurentiis, Gaetano Scalise, Fabio Fulgeri and Lorenzo Contrada, said they were taken aback by the decision to move forward with the trial, expressing surprise that the court agreed to the prosecution's request.
The Italian ANSA agency confirmed that the first hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 2, 2026.
The allegations revolve around two major transfers: Kostas Manolas, who arrived from Roma in 2019, and Victor Osimhen, acquired from Lille in 2020. Prosecutors argue that these deals may have been used to create so-called imaginary capital gains during their registration in the club’s financial reports. Such capital gains refer to artificially inflated values that can make club finances appear healthier than they actually are.
The Rome Prosecutor’s Office included these claims in its indictment request submitted in February, suggesting that the accounting treatment of these transfers might have distorted the club’s financial position during the specified years.
These proceedings are expected to spark renewed debate on financial transparency in Serie A, Italy’s top professional football league, where clubs have faced increasing scrutiny for their transfer and accounting practices.
The case will now move to a full trial stage, where the court will examine whether Napoli’s management benefited from unreal capital gains in connection with these two transfers.
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