One after another, Juventus just can’t catch a break from legal troubles. After having reversed their 15-point deduction in Serie A last month which was handed to them in January for an accounting scandal named ‘plusvalenza’. In 2021, a financial inquiry against the club was started since it was alleged that losses between 2018 and 2020 had been overstated.
Juventus denied any wrongdoing, but the FIGC Prosecutor’s request to restart the sports trial against the club for their suspected use of fabricated capital profits was granted by the Federal Court of Appeals. And in a new, Juventus will face a sporting trial, according to the FIGC, for alleged anomalies in the club’s payments to players as well as improper interactions with other teams and players’ agents.
Juventus accused of irregular salary payments and undue relationships with players’ agents
The new sports trial comes on top of another one the club is currently facing, for which a fresh decision is anticipated on Monday, and might result in more sporting sanctions, such as extra point deductions. Juventus was penalised 15 points in January as part of the continuing probe involving the club’s transfer activities, but the punishment was subsequently overturned as Italy’s top sports authority ordered a fresh hearing.
The Turin outfit is now second in Serie A with 69 points, trailing winners Napoli, with three games remaining in the current campaign. The most successful team in Italy, Juve, may be eliminated from the running for lucrative European competitions with any point reduction.
Former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, former vice president Pavel Nedved and former sports director Fabio Paratici are parties to a new sports trial that was issued against the club. FIGC prosecutors claim that they agreed to reimburse players for the majority of their COVID-19-related salary reductions without properly accounting for them.
Juventus had announced at the beginning of the epidemic that 23 players had consented to a four-month wage reduction to assist the team in getting through the crisis. The Old Lady on Friday declined to add to their earlier statement that they had “correctly applied the relevant international accounting standards.”
FIGC stated on Friday that Sampdoria, Atalanta, Sassuolo, Udinese, Bologna, and Cagliari are the other teams with whom Juventus is believed to have had improper contacts, but stressed that these teams were still under investigation. Prosecutors in Turin have also accused Juventus, Agnelli, and 11 other people of market manipulation, fraudulent billing, impeding watchdog agencies, and misleading communications via a firm listed openly on the Milan stock exchange.
Since Italy’s Sports Guarantee Board previously decided that former Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli should be barred from holding office in Italian football for 24 months, the club has been mired in scandal. It also decided to give former Juventus sports director Fabio Paratici, who left his position as managing director of football at Premier League club Tottenham, a 30-month suspension.
The Financial Fair Play fines imposed by UEFA are also a danger to Juventus. The Bianconeri was fined £3.1 million in September 2022 for breaking FFP regulations, and they entered into numerous agreements to avoid paying a further £17.3 million. Balance sheets submitted by Juventus, which are currently at the core of the investigations by the Turin Prosecutor’s Office and the IFIGC, served as the foundation for this settlement.