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Italian finance police conducted searches and seized documents from 41 football clubs on Tuesday, including 18 top-league teams, on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering in the buying and selling of players, a police spokesman said.
The police search of football clubs includes SS Lazio and Juventus FC according to judicial and police sources. A spokesman for Lazio had no comment, and Juventus officials did not immediately respond to phone calls.
Apart from the top level Serie A teams, 11 B league teams and 12 from the lower brackets are involved. In addition to the Italian clubs, almost 10 foreign clubs are affected, judicial sources said, and a dozen agents of both Italian and foreign clubs. The names of the other clubs involved were not given.
The Naples court ordered the searches as part of an investigation into the crimes of criminal conspiracy, international tax evasion, money laundering and invoice falsification, police said.
(Reuters)