Giovanni di Stefano charged through the doors at Dens Park on August 7 2003 in a memorable blaze of self-publicity and big promises.
The so-called Devil’s Advocate with a client list featuring some of the world’s most notorious despots and warlords was joining the board at Dundee FC.
Nothing would be the same again.
The wheeling-dealing lawyer who had, it would later emerge, no legal qualifications, at all, careered through the 1990s and noughties making money and headlines in equal measure.
Di Stefano claimed to have offered counsel to the likes of Arkan, Slobodan Milosevic, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Robert Mugabe during his legal career.
Dundee rejected his investment in 1999 before he attempted an aborted takeover attempt at Norwich City in 2001 when he tried to get his son installed as a director.
Di Stefano was back after being offered a seat on the Dens board by the club’s owners, Peter and Jimmy Marr, who were now struggling to keep the club afloat under the weight of huge debts.
It was standing room only when di Stefano was unveiled at a packed press conference at Dens that brought journalists from all corners of the country to Dundee.
It was one of those “where were you when you heard?” moments to rival cod philosopher Eric Cantona’s unfathomable twaddle on seagulls, sardines and trawlers.
The self-professed “most investigated man in the world” immediately scratched two names off the list of potential season-ticket holders at Dens Park.
“You will not see Saddam Hussein here,” he said.
“You will not see bin Laden here.
“If we do, we’ll collect the reward, pay off our overdraft and buy Beckham.”
Di Stefano made big statements and wanted Dundee to regularly challenge Rangers and Celtic for trophies and become the third force in Scottish football.
He brought with him an inscribed paperweight that would be displayed in the club boardroom, which, he said, summed up his feelings on the day he “knew would come”.
“It’s just the words that are important,” he said.
“It says here: ‘Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home and a stranger into a friend’ and I hope I will be a good friend to Dundee Football Club.
“I do, of course, have another profession and I must comply with the requirements of that profession but other than that Dundee Football Club certainly will have 100% effort from me.
“I have had a relationship with the club for the past four years.
“We’ve been living together.
“Now is the time for the marriage.
“You can’t always live together.
“Sometimes the in-laws complain about that.”
Nicholas van Hoogstraten Stand
Although it wasn’t clear what financial contribution he would actually be making to the club, he pledged to support manager Jim Duffy in recruiting new signings.
“I have sat down with Jim Duffy and discussed the situation with him,” he said.
“We already have a very strong team and I can’t speculate.
“But if he feels the need to have a specific player and the price is right then I won’t shy away from my responsibilities.”
Di Stefano said if the right player was to cost him £1 million then it would be “no problem” and he also revealed plans to construct a new south stand at Dens.
Never one to shy away from controversy, di Stefano joked that the new construction would be named the “Nicholas van Hoogstraten Stand” after the convicted killer.
Van Hoogstraten had been jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of the manslaughter of a business rival.
Di Stefano helped make legal history as part of the team which overturned the manslaughter conviction and argued the judge had misdirected the jury.
He maintained his silence when asked how much money he would be injecting into Dundee and also declined to answer what percentage of the club he owned.
He denied he was acting for any other individual or group of individuals and he also laughed off suggestions of indecency in his financial affairs.
He said: “There has been an enormous media interest in something that would normally be by the by.
“They can suggest what they like but I think I’ve been the most investigated man in the world and here I am.”
Di Stefano then denied he was an unsuitable suitor for Dundee, after being asked about his links to several high-profile legal clients including Serbian warlord Arkan.
“I do not shy away from the fact Mr Ražnatović (Arkan) was a client,” he said.
“He was my friend and I have not shied away from Dundee, I have stayed very loyal.
“I have made football investments elsewhere but all that’s gone and I’m just interested in Dundee Football Club.”
Di Stefano said he wanted Dundee to challenge the Old Firm’s stranglehold on Scottish football and would be actively working to remedy such ills.
“We will be competitive,” he said.
“We need to do something about that otherwise we can’t have a credible league in Scotland.
“The league is currently a two-horse race but now it’s certainly going to be three.”
Di Stefano also called for a new merged British competition to replace both the Scottish and FA Cup competitions as well as the creation of a unified UK national XI.
Peter Marr welcomed his new recruit.
He said it could be a good acquisition because he would provide financial expertise, commercial know-how and connections from across the world.
Marr said di Stefano would be taking a small shareholding and not a controlling interest and stressed that his footballing contacts were of prime importance.
He said: “The experience he’s got in the legal world, financial world and also in the football world are things that are useful when you are running a football club.
“Then there is also the financial aspect, and we are dealing with a guy who is operating at a higher level than we do at present.
“If that leads to investment, that would be great, but we have not talked money and, whatever happens, Jimmy and I intend to remain in control at Dundee.”
Marr also denied a suggestion that di Stefano’s links with some of the world’s most infamous figures would bring disrepute upon Dens Park.
“I think he’ll always be controversial, that’s the kind of guy he is,” said Marr.
“But he is a lawyer, he acts for some of the biggest people and in the highest courts and he’s accepted there.”
Rollercoaster ride at Dundee FC went off the rails
What followed was one of the most remarkable periods, for good and bad reasons, in Dundee’s history.
Di Stefano vowed to stump up the cash to match his mouthy ambitions.
Paul Gascoigne, James McFadden, Dani, Peter Crouch, Djalminha and Georgi Kinkladze were all targeted by Dundee before transfer deadline day.
Gazza was trying to get his career back on track and Dundee were hoping that having some of the finest fishing beats on his doorstep would reel in the angling addict.
It didn’t.
Di Stefano eventually blamed the “location and state of Scottish football” as the reason the club was unable to sign any player within the transfer deadline.
But it was a free agent capture that would shock the football world.
Fabrizio Ravanelli arrived in the City of Discovery in September 2003, seven years after scoring for Juventus in the Italian club’s Champions League final triumph over Ajax.
It wasn’t long before the Dark Blues ran into financial difficulties and, in November 2003, they were placed in voluntary administration with debts of £23m.
Administration would herald the biggest earners going first and one of the candidates to be first through the exit door was Ravanelli, whose time was up after just six games.
Di Stefano wasn’t the white knight the Marr brothers had hoped for and they claimed his financial promises failed to materialise.
The Scottish Football Association also refused to accept di Stefano as a “fit and proper person” and he soon resigned.
But the club would live on.
Dundee’s fans raised a staggering £150,000 by the first quarter of 2004 to stave off the threat of immediate closure, a sum that went up to £500,000 by the summer.
Dundee managed to battle on until the end of the season and finished in seventh place.
Di Stefano was jailed for 14 years in March 2013, after being convicted of offences including deception, fraud, and money laundering following a 78-day trial.
The judge told di Stefano: “There is more than one kind of predator. Some predators hunt down their victims, others lie in wait for them.
“Your victims in this case were all desperate people and people who, because of their desperation, were vulnerable.
“You had no regard for them nor for their anguish.
“Your only concern was to line your own pockets.”
He was released from HMP Highpoint in Suffolk in 2023 and returned to Italy.
He retains a great affection for Dundee FC.
