Juventus soccer team president Andrea Agnelli arrives before the start of the third free practice at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Sept. 10, 2022. The prosecutor of the Italian soccer federation requested a nine-point penalty for Juventus on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, for alleged false accounting involving the Bianconeri. Prosecutor Giuseppe Chine requested a 16-month ban for former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and similarly long bans for other former Juve board members. | Photo Credit: AP
Juventus have been deducted 15 points for the current season by an Italian soccer court investigating the club’s transfer deals, leaving the country’s most successful team stranded in mid-table.
The decision, which also damages the club’s reputation, is tougher than the nine-point deduction a soccer prosecutor requested on Friday at a hearing looking into the way Juventus and several other teams deal with player exchange deal.
With 20 games left to play this season, Juve are third in Serie A with 37 points, 10 behind leaders Napoli. The drop pushes them down to 10th place, outside the qualifying spots for the lucrative European competition.
In a late night statement, the court also imposed bans from holding office in Italian soccer on 11 past and present directors of Juventus.
This includes 24 months for Andrea Agnelli, who was replaced this week as chairman after formally resigning in November, and 30 months for the former sporting director, Fabio Paratici, now managing director of football at the Premier League club of England’s Tottenham Hotspur.
Juventus said it would appeal to the country’s Sport Guarantee Board once the reasons for the decision were published.
“We consider this a clear injustice for millions of fans, which we trust will soon be resolved in the next court,” the club’s lawyers said in a statement.
Juventus denied wrongdoing and said their accounting was in line with industry standards.
The club is controlled by the Agnelli family’s Exor holding company and its shares are listed on the Milan stock exchange.
Case reopened
The ruling overturns a previous decision in April to clear Juventus, 10 other clubs and their executives of wrongdoing.
Soccer authorities reopened the case and requested a partial cancellation of the initial decision so they could examine new documents collected by public prosecutors in the city of Turin investigating Juventus’ finances.
The court confirmed the acquittal of eight other soccer clubs, including Serie A’s Sampdoria and Empoli, and their directors, where prosecutors also want to reopen the case.
Public prosecutors in Turin have asked Andrea Agnelli, 11 other people and the club itself to stand trial on charges of false accounting.
Juventus shareholders earlier this week appointed a new slimmed-down, five-member board with Gianluca Ferrero – an accountant close to John Elkann, the senior business figure in the family that owns the club in for a century – replaced Andrea Agnelli as chairman after graduation. 10 years.
