In the early 2000s, various Italian football clubs declared bankruptcy as benefactors withdrew financial support.
Despite the law, many clubs continued to practice cross-trading in order to raise the short-term profit required to meet financial criteria for the 2003– 2004 season.
As a result, the clubs had to overcome yet another capital shortfall, which later created controversy when re-evaluating their brand and mortgages to banks.
Examples include deals involving Giuseppe Colucci and Alberto Maria Fontana (Roma–Verona, both 12.5 billion lire fee); and an exchange that involved Amedeo Mangone, Paolo Poggi and Sergei Gurenko for Diego Fuser, Raffaele Longo and Saliou Lassissi (Roma–Parma, both 65 billion lire transfer fees in total).
[4] Bologna chairman Giuseppe Gazzoni Frascara proclaimed his innocence and reported false accounting to the Italian Football Federation.
On A.C. Fiorentina's side, the liquidator from the Court of Florence found that the date of player profit and cross-trading were wrong on the balance sheet.
[2] In January 2007, the prosecutor exposed the alleged false account of Crespo (cash-plus player swap) and Domenico Morfeo (failure of Fiorentina).
[25] Zamparini, the chairman of Palermo, insisted that the fine was heavy, as the cross-trading was under previous ownership (Sensi).
Some research had criticized the effectiveness of the indicators of FIGC's Covisoc on the actual financial health of the football club.