Watford chairman Raffaele Riva resigns amid 'forged letter' investigation

Vicarage Road, the home of Watford FC
Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Sam Long2 November 2016

Watford chairman Raffaele Riva has stepped down from his role at Vicarage Road with immediate effect.

The Premier League club have called in independent solicitors to investigate allegations the club gave a forged bank letter to the Football League.

It is claimed that false financial information was submitted when Gino Pozzo became Watford’s sole owner in 2014.

The Daily Telegraph claim a faked document was provided as proof Pozzo had enough funds to bankroll Watford. The alleged forged letter was submitted when Watford were in the Championship.

The Football League are investigating and Watford will present the findings of their own investigation early this month.

A statement on the club's website read: "I have decided to step down as Chairman of Watford FC in order to focus on my other business interests.

"For the past four years I have acted with honesty and in good faith in all my dealings on behalf of the club, and the club has developed and grown a great deal in this period.

"I fully refute, and will protect vigorously my integrity against, any recent speculation.

"It will always be a source of great pride and honour to have been Chairman during a period that has overseen such growth.

"Watford has done exceptionally well in the current season and I wish the club and its wonderful supporters nothing but future success."

Walter Mazzarri's side are currently seventh in the Premier League table, having won four of their opening 10 top-flight games this season.

Riva will now be replaced by chief executive Scott Duxbury as executive chairman.

Pozzo also released a joint statement on Wednesday evening with Duxbury addressed to supporters which stated they are confident there will be no sanctions brought against them.

"We share your pride at the progress the club has made over the past four years and we will not allow its name to be tarnished by the incident brought to light last week," they said.

"Today the preliminary investigation from a firm of solicitors into that matter was completed and the findings will be sent to the EFL. We can assure every supporter the club acted with honesty, integrity and in good faith at every step and is not guilty of any wrongdoing and we are sure this will ultimately be recognised.

"The three key pillars of stability, sustainability and growth are just as important today as they were when we first met and spoke with Watford fans back in 2012. Since that time, with the backing of the supporters, we have built both a Premier League side and a stadium of which we can all be proud."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in