It's a bang that will linger for a long time: While the best players from Juventus Turin are fighting for the World Cup in Qatar, the Italian record champions are upside down in their home country of Piedmont.

On Monday evening, after a meeting of the board of directors, the club's management announced that all members of this body, including the president and his deputy, would be replaced.

The owners, in the form of the Agnelli family of industrialists, make a clean sweep: the long-standing president Andrea Agnelli is replaced by businessman Gianluca Ferrero, who is close to Agnelli boss John Elkann.

As the new general manager, Maurizio Scanavino will take over the operative business.

He previously headed the Gedi publishing group, which belongs to Agnelli Holding Exor.

Only CEO Maurizio Arrivabene was asked to

Christian Schubert

Economic correspondent for Italy and Greece.

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The background to the events, which the Italian press describes as an "earthquake", is the investigation by the Turin public prosecutor's office into possible accounting fraud and the financial difficulties of the club, which recorded a record loss of more than 254 million euros last season.

In its Monday evening press release, the club acknowledges that there were "salary maneuvers" in the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 financial years with player ratings that "can be interpreted differently from an accounting perspective".

"Loyalty bonuses" would also have to be reassessed.

However, the adjustments would have no impact on cash flow and net financial debt and "no significant impact on equity".

The club vows to strengthen internal controls and procedures, especially in accounting.

The shares of the association, whose minority shares are listed on the Milan stock exchange, suffered a price loss of around 2 percent at times on Tuesday.

Juve, as the Italians say, has been suffering in the stock market for a long time.

In April 2019, the paper was still five times worth.

The public prosecutor is investigating allegations that the balance sheets were artificially inflated with fictitious profits.

The club, which had Cristiano Ronaldo under contract until the summer of 2021, is said to have given players a higher value than was actually justified.

The takeover of Arthur Melo for 72 million euros from FC Barcelona in mid-2020, for which the Spaniards received Miralem Pjanić in return, is said to have been booked with unreal prices.

How much money actually flowed remains open.

42 transfers are said to be under suspicion.

The income was probably booked immediately and the expenses were spread over several years.

Discrepancies in salary payments and consultant fees are also investigated.