Fabrizio Ravanelli was out for blood and had Giovanni di Stefano in his sights when his fledgling Dundee FC career was brought to an abrupt halt.
Di Stefano was known as the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ for representing high-profile criminals including Harold Shipman, Ronnie Biggs, Jeremy Bamber, Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic but would eventually be revealed as a fraud with no legal training.
The self-professed “most investigated man in the world” was offered a place on the Dens Park board by owners Peter and Jimmy Marr in August 2003.
He vowed to stump up the cash to match his mouthy ambitions and said that if the right player was to cost him £1 million then it would be “no problem”.
The Marr brothers hoped di Stefano would be a white knight but his financial promises failed to materialise despite the signing of Ravanelli in September 2003.
Former Scotland international Craig Burley, like Ravanelli, was released by cost-cutting Derby County, and signed on a two-year deal alongside his ex-team-mate.
Di Stefano promised to pay Ravanelli’s wages but his time was soon up after just six games when the club was plunged into voluntary administration.
“I didn’t ever envisage it turning out the way it did,” said Burley.
“I’d no thoughts in my head that things were going to unravel as quickly as they did.
“I had no inclination that was going to happen.”
‘Ravanelli felt bludgeoned by this betrayal’
Burley said he can’t recall ever being paid during his spell at Dundee.
He was interviewed on a new podcast exploring the life of the convicted fraudster which is hosted by his son Michael and journalist Calum McCrae.
Burley went to see manager Jim Duffy after failing to be paid but told him that it wasn’t a problem and he would still play while the matter was resolved.
“But I remember Jim Duffy looking at me and the alarm bells were ringing,” he said.
Administration would herald the biggest earners at Dens Park going first and among those first through the exit door were Burley and Ravanelli.
“I pitched up into a room at Dens Park and there was a roll call of names read out and they were all the names that were released with immediate effect,” said Burley.
“I was one of them.
“Ravanelli felt bludgeoned by this betrayal.
“I remember him saying to me: ‘Craig! Craig! What we’re going to do is go to London and we’re going to see di Stefano and we’re going to get our money!’
“It was like some mafioso thing from his homeland!
“I said: ‘No, no, no…you have to understand we aren’t getting any money, it isn’t happening’. He’s like: ‘This is incredible, they owe us money, we have contracts’.
“I said: ‘Listen, this is Dens, this is gone, forget it – we’re not going down there with the henchmen demanding our two years’ worth of money, or whatever it was’.
“So I managed to talk him out of that one.
“I said: ‘Listen, this has all been one big con – it’s gone’.”
Former manager Jim Duffy also features in the What’s the Story? Sounds podcast and claims di Stefano promised to “invest millions and bring superstar players to the club”.
Duffy recalls the madcap plans to bring Juventus midfielder Edgar Davids to Dens Park and swap his penthouse in Turin for a tenement in Tannadice Street.
Di Stefano told Duffy that Davids had agreed to give all that up to come to Dundee and play alongside Barry Smith, Lee Wilkie and Bobby Linn.
The Scottish Football Association refused to accept di Stefano as a “fit and proper person” and he soon resigned from his position following administration.
Di Stefano was convicted in March 2013 for 14 years of offences including deception, fraud, and money laundering following a 78-day trial.
In 2023, some 20 years on from his cameo in Scottish football, di Stefano will be eligible for release.
That’s because in 2014 a crown court judge made a confiscation order where he was told to pay £2.5 million or serve an additional six-year sentence.
Story of a life a little less ordinary
Since being convicted his son Michael has been seeking to uncover the truth about his father’s life and the seven-episode podcast seeks to answer those questions.
Speaking about the new series, Michael di Stefano said: “Ever since I was little I’ve known that there was more to ‘dad’ than met the eye.
“But finding the truth, and getting the answers hasn’t been easy.
“It’s only in the course of the last few years that I’ve been able to really dig into the things that have troubled me.
“And making this podcast has caused me to ask some difficult questions and go to places I didn’t think I would.
“This is a story of a life a little less ordinary – one I’ve said many times that nobody would believe.
“And yet – as I’ve discovered – the truth is far more surprising than anything you could make up.”
All seven episodes are available now via all streaming platforms.
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