One of the most colourful figures to sit in the boardrooms of Italian soccer, ex-Perugia chairman Luciano Gaucci, appears set to return to the country after an arrest warrant linked to his former club's bankruptcy was lifted Monday.
Gaucci fled to the Dominican Republic in early 2006 after the former Serie A club, then home to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi's footballing son, went bust the previous summer.
Gaucci's sons Alessandro and Riccardo were arrested but have since been released pending trial.
A preliminary investigations judge upheld prosecutors' arguments that Gaucci should also be detained.
But a pre-trial hearing on Monday ruled that the arrest warrant should be lifted for compassionate reasons because of ''serious health problems'' facing one of Gaucci's brothers.
The judge will rule on November 26 whether to accept Gaucci's plea for a three-year suspended sentence.
Prosecutors say some 40 million euros were siphoned out of the soccer club's accounts into Gaucci's other business interests.
Some 20 million euros paid in 2000 by AS Roma for Japanese star Hidetoshi Nakata allegedly went missing.
Gaucci, 69, made the money he needed to enter the world of soccer out of an industrial cleaning business he began after starting out in life as a bus driver.
He took over at Perugia in 1991 when it was at the bottom of the C1 third division. He led it up through the league and into the top flight in 1996.
He often made headlines during his 14-year reign due to frequent televised outbursts in which he blasted players, other club chairmen and the game's powers-that-be.
He famously announced on-air that Perugia was dumping South Korean star Ahn Jung Wan after his golden goal knocked Italy out of the World Cup in 2002 - but then showed nifty footwork in reversing the decision and praising the World Cup hosts.
The beefy executive also grabbed visibility in 2003 by hiring Gaddafi's son Saadi, head of the Libyan soccer federation, who played a couple of games with the club.
Another incident remembered by Italian soccer fans was when Gaucci claimed in the same year that a blonde Swedish woman would soon be playing in his team. She failed to materialise.
Gaucci pulled out of the running of Perugia in 2004 after the club was relegated to Serie B and left it in the hands of his sons, who became president and vice president.
In July 2005 the club's finances finally gave way and soccer authorities refused to allow it to play in the 2005-06 season. The club was officially closed after a 100-year history and then re-opened under new management and executives. It is now in Serie B.
In several interviews in Sandto Domingo, Gaucci has said he wants to return to Italy.
With the risk of detention no longer hanging over him, legal experts say he is likely to return if next month's plea-bargain hearing goes his way.
There are no extradition accords between Italy and the Caribbean island.
