Veron faces passport hearing

Manchester United FC's Juan Sebastián Veron has been called to appear before Italy's state prosecutor in Rome on 12 July to answer allegations of illegally acquiring an Italian passport.

Veron accused
Veron and eight others, including two S.S Lazio executives, are accused of forging an official document regarding the Argentinian international's passport. Despite both Veron and the Lazio president, Sergio Cragnotti,  having been cleared by the Italian sports justice system in June 2001 they have still to be cleared by the legal justice system.

Official document
Veron, who played for the Rome club between 1999 and 2001, does not have to appear at the hearing, and will be represented by his lawyer Marcello Petrelli. "I can confirm that Juan Sebastián Veron has been accused of forging an official document,'' said Petrelli. "But I would like to point out that Veron maintains that he did not have anything to do with this, that it was Lazio and an Argentinian agency who deals with the documents that were involved in this affair."

Cragnotti's role
Cragnotti has also been called to explain his role in obtaining the passports at a hearing on 17 October, but according to club lawyer Ugo Longo: "Sergio Cragnotti is not worried because he was not involved in this issue with the exception that he authorised a payment to be made to an Argentinian who organised the papers regarding the Veron documents from Argentina, but he did not know that those documents may have been forged.''