Fabio Capello, the England manager, is furious after being threatened with prosecution for allegedly withholding information and giving false testimony during the trial of Luciano Moggi, the former Juventus general director.

Capello was targeted by Luca Palamara, the public prosecutor, after giving evidence in Rome yesterday and notified that a case may be brought against him under article 372 of Italy’s penal code. Although the likeliest punishment is a fine, giving false evidence can carry a sentence of between two and six years in prison.

Capello’s legal team are convinced that Palamara will not follow through with his threat, however, although even the potential for such a case would come as a huge embarrassment to Capello and the Football Association. Capello is said by friends to be deeply upset and angry at the implication that he was in some way dishonest. It is his belief that his presence was not required to prosecute Moggi successfully and he was only brought to the trial as a witness to give it greater impact, owing to his fame in Italy and status as a successful manager.

The conflict concerns his evidence when he was asked about an interview he gave to the Rome-based newspaper, Corriere dello Sport, in 2002 during which he mentioned the danger of a monopoly developing because of the influence of the Gea World sports agency, which represented a significant number of players in the Italian league. Capello was coach of AS Roma at the time and complained that although his assistant, Franco Baldini, often identified potential transfer targets, those players contracted to Gea World proved hard to procure.

The company was part-owned by Moggi, a former Juventus executive at the centre of a match-fixing scandal two years ago, who is on trial along with five others accused of using threats or violence to pressure players to join his agency.

Capello’s accusation about Gea World was considered a serious plank of the prosecution case, particularly as he subsequently found Gea-contracted players easier to sign when he left AS Roma to manage Juventus. Yet when questioned about his statements yesterday, it was alleged that Capello showed reticence in his answers.

Asked about the newspaper interview, he replied: “I did that interview because I thought it was right to do something for Roma. I knew about Gea, I knew that many players were gravitating towards that company.” But Capello added that all he knew about Gea “was that it existed, I didn’t even know who ran it”. It is this statement that is believed to have brought the accusation of withholding testimony.

Despite his earlier comments, Capello also maintained that he had never dealt with player contracts while working in Italy and claimed no knowledge of players being put under pressure to sign contracts.

In an hour of testimony, he told the court: “I have never heard about players being put under pressure or of incidents relating to players’ contracts. At Roma and then at Juventus when I was boss, I only dealt with coaching decisions.”

Palamara said that Capello and Antonio Giraudo, a former Juventus director, had been “too reticent” in giving evidence. He said the men had claimed too often that they “did not remember” or “did not know” in reply to questions.

Last night Capello’s lawyers insisted he would be cleared of the claims, releasing a bullish statement. “We are really surprised by the public prosecutor’s declaration,” it read. “Mr Capello was heard as a witness in the proceedings against the Gea company and confirmed before the Court of Rome all of the declarations that he had already provided to the public prosecutor during the investigation.

“At the end of the hearing, Mr Capello was certain that in his capacity as a witness, he had given all the information required of him to the prosecutor and the court.”

An FA spokesman refused to comment, saying that Capello’s court appearance was a private matter.

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