Same Old Lady: Juventus Rocked By 15-Point Penalty For Breaking Financial Regulations
Juventus’ season has been shattered by a 15-point deduction in Serie A after a series of financial breaches investigated by the FIGC, the financial governing body in Italy, were brought to light.
Several former members of the Juventus board have faced further punishments, these include now Tottenham Sporting Director Fabio Paratici who received a two-and-a-half-year ban, former club president Andrea Agnelli incurring a two years sanction and ex-vice-president Pavel Nedved.
The latter two individuals resigned from their posts after allegations were brought to light in November 2022.
The penalty now drops the Florence-based club to 10th position in Serie A, ending any hopes of a title challenge whilst casting doubts over their chances of qualification to next season’s Champions League.
What Has Happened?
Findings have come to light that the Bianconeri had made capital gains over a series of shady transfer dealings with clubs over a significant period of time.
A set of high-profile swap deals including the trade that saw Barcelona swap Miralem Pjanic with Arthur Melo, Leanardo Bonucci’s switch to AC Milan which saw Mattia Caldara move in the opposite direction and the exchange with Roma involving Luca Pellegrini and Leanardo Spinazzola, three of 22 transfers investigated by the FIGC.
Each deal contained false financial representation of terms and inflation of the true value of players whilst others showed traits of capital gain over time with structured deals and occurrences of money laundering.
As part of a wider investigation into club financial dealings in Italy, the other clubs under investigation Sampdoria, Genoa, Parma, Empoli and Pescara were acquitted of any wrongdoing.
What’s Next?
Juventus have announced that they will contest the points sanction with club lawyers issuing a statement that once more information is gathered on the individual cases an appeal will be carried out.
“Today’s acceptance of the appeal for revocation by the Federal Court of Appeal seems to us to constitute a clear unequal treatment to the detriment of Juventus and its managers compared to any other club or member.
“We believe that this is a clear injustice also towards millions of fans, who we trust will soon be reminded in the next level of judgment”.
Findings will be outlined by the FIGC in the next 10 days with Juventus having 30 days to appeal the decision.
Allegri’s side will now look to move focus onto the pitch as they look to work on reducing their deficit on the top four in Seria A tomorrow evening facing Atalanta at the Allianz Stadium.
