Udinese deny money siphoned off to fund Watford

MILAN: The owners of Serie A Club Udinese have denied reports money was siphoned off from clubs owned by the Pozzi family in Italy and Spain to fund English side Watford.

U di ne se is owned by businessman Giampaolo Pozzo while his son Gino owns English Premier League club Watford.

The family also previously owned Spanish side Granada but sold it to Chinese firm Link International Sports in 2016.

Italian daily La Repubblica claimed on Wednesday that prosecutors in Madrid and Udine were investigating financial links between the three clubs.

It claimed that a triangle of holding companies – in China and offshore holdings–had drained millions from Udinese and Granada, to fund Watford because of the Premier League’s more lucrat ive television rights.

“This article contains serious falsehoods detrimental to the image of the Pozzo fami ly, Udinese and the Engl i sh company of the Pozzo family,” Udinese said in a statement, adding there was nothing “criminal” in the relationship between Udinese and the other clubs.

“Checks were already carried out with positive results, both by the Inland Revenue Agency and the Udine Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the statement added.

It added that Gino Pozzo “has never been accused or investigated in Italy for the crime of tax fraud and his name has never been registered in the crime news register”. — AFP