Luis Suarez suspected of cheating on Italian citizenship exam

Suarez passed the exam last Thursday, 17 September, at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy. Now Italian authorities are investigating alleged “irregularities”.

Italian police is currently investigating whether Luis Suarez, an Uruguay national, was illegally assisted to pass an Italian language exam, in order to obtain an European passport. Given that the FC Barcelona striker was about to be transferred to Juventus FC, an Italian or European passport could have been handy for him. After the transfer to Juventus collapsed, Atletico Madrid has shown interest for the Uruguayan striker.

Luis Suarez, whose wife is of Italian descent and making the footballer eligible for Italian passport, took the exam last week at the University for Foreigners in Italy but the Perugia prosecutor’s office and Guardia di Finanza, the Italian financial police, say they are looking into how the exam has been conducted. The Italian news agency Ansa has confirmed that, as of today, Luis Suarez is not under investigation.

Moreover, the application submitted by Luis Suarez to be granted the Italian citizenship seems to have been expedited down to less than 15 days, whilst, in most cases, the procedure may take up to 3 years.

“Investigations have shown the topics of the exam had been agreed with the candidate and the relative score had been assigned before the test,” a statement from the Perugia investigative office said yesterday. The prosecutor’s statement continues: “the applicant demonstrated only an elementary knowledge of the Italian language”.

The Italian police reported that only five university officials are under investigation after seizing several documents at the university premises.