Court verdict

A loud scandal continues to flare up in Italian sports, in the center of which is the most titled club in Serie A. The day before, the country's Football Federation Court (FIGC) granted the prosecutor's request and decided to punish Juventus in the case of financial fraud.

As a result, the team itself lost almost half of the points scored and fell from third to tenth place in the championship standings, and its former leaders received a ban on football activities for up to 2.5 years.

Among the bosses of the “old lady” who have recently left their posts, Pavel Nedved, who has held the position of vice president in recent years, was the most fortunate.

Cech was banned for just eight months, while former club president Andrea Agnelli and former CEO Maurizio Arrivabene were suspended for two years.

The sanctions also affected the current sports director of the team and his predecessor.

Federico Cherubini will be out of Italian football for 16 months and Fabio Paratici for 2.5 years.

True, this is unlikely to affect his prospects at the English Tottenham, where he has been working since June 2021.

It is noteworthy that initially the FIGC prosecutor's office demanded less severe sanctions from the court against Juventus and its functionaries.

So, the team was asked to be fined nine points, and the longest suspension was 20 months and 10 days.

However, the court considered this insufficient.

The club itself hastened to declare disagreement with the court's verdict.

The 36-time Italian champion is awaiting publication of the reasoning part of the decision and, in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Sports Justice, announces an appeal to the Arbitration Board for Guarantees in Sport, the statement said.

Thus, in the future the situation may change, and the punishment against the team may well be revised.

In the meantime, the Bianconeri are not only eliminated from the battle for the Scudetto, but also practically lose their chances to compete for a ticket to European competition.

From giving the right to speak in the League of Conferences of the sixth line, they are separated by 12 points.

What are Juventus accused of?

An investigation into the club became known back in 2021.

He was suspected of false reporting and fraud during transfers and exchanges.

Juventus allegedly inflated prices for athletes and along the way "played" with depreciation.

Thus, the profit from the sale was taken into account in the budget immediately, while the cost of acquiring players was evenly distributed over the entire term of their contract.

Thus, Turintsy constantly remained in the black and bypassed the financial fair play, although in fact they suffered losses.

They were also compensated by shareholders together with Agnelli, who invested about €700 million in it over three years.

If we talk about fraud with transfers, then the transactions with Barcelona registered in September 2020 can be considered indicative in this regard, as a result of which the Catalans received the rights to Miralem Pjanic, and the Turinites to Arthur.

Nominally, the Italians paid €76 million for the Brazilian, while €16 million less for the Bosnian.

At the same time, the profit from the sale was taken into account in full and immediately, while the costs are evenly distributed until 2025 - until the end of the agreement with the midfielder (for € 15.2 million).

And although in fact the expenses of the “old lady” were higher, on paper they turned out to be a solid plus.

Among other things, Juventus were suspected of paying part of their salaries to employees in envelopes during the coronavirus pandemic.

In November 2021, La Gazetta dello Sport reported that the club did business with Cristiano Ronaldo in a similar way, at that time by a wide margin being the highest paid representative of the team.

This helped to get rid of the payment of part of the taxes and reduce losses.

However, later it turned out that this was not all.

So, in 2020, the Juventus players allegedly refused their salaries for four months, which also helped to significantly “lighten” the statement.

In fact, the players donated only a monthly salary, while they agreed to receive the money for the remaining three months later.

At the same time, the management communicated with other athletes through their main stars - Cristiano Ronaldo, Leonadro Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, who at that time wore the captain's armband.

He personally posted a message in the general chat of the team on WhatsApp and asked the partners not to talk about it in an interview.

And although the Italian subsequently denied this, Matthijs de Ligt and Mattia De Sciglio provided the investigators with screenshots of the posts.

Surely another important piece of evidence was the recording of Cherubini's conversations with lawyer Cesare Gabasio, published by La Stampa, during which they discuss a secret deal with Ronaldo.

The functionary assured that the agreement with the Portuguese should not be disclosed, otherwise "they will be grabbed by the throat."

If Juventus (along with Napoli) was acquitted in the case of overpricing athletes back in April, then the investigation continued on the remaining points.

In an attempt to minimize the damage, the seven members of the board, as well as Agnelli, Nedved and Arrivabene themselves, have decided to resign.

However, already on December 1, it became known that the prosecutor's office of Turin filed motions to bring charges against 12 people, one way or another connected with the “old lady”.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, a warrant has already been prepared for their arrest.

In turn, the well-known insider Gianluca di Marzio reported that Juventus could face a fine of up to several million euros, and those under investigation, in addition to a monetary penalty, risked being imprisoned for a period of one to eight years.

And now there is every reason to believe that this is not the end of Juventus' problems.

Back in early December, UEFA launched an investigation into Turin, during which the Investigative Chamber for Financial Control over Clubs (CFCB) will check for a possible violation of club licensing and financial fair play rules.

At the same time, Calcio Finanza informs that Ronaldo himself is ready to sue the Bianconeri, allegedly not receiving the €19.9 million promised under a secret agreement from them.