Juventus have been heavily penalized by the Italian Football Federation over accounting fraud in player transfers over the past few years. The Turin club suffered a 15-point penalty and fell seven places in the Serie A standings.
It’s a decision that seriously compromises Juventus’ season. The club, which still occupied third place in the Italian championship yesterday, was heavily penalized with a withdrawal of 15 points in the standings, ” to be served during the current season “, by the Italian Football Federation this Friday, January 20.
Juventus is thus demoted seven places in the standings – from 37 to 22 points after the sanction – and sees its hopes of finishing in the first four places, synonymous with qualification for the next Champions League, strongly compromised.
” It doesn’t change anything, we have to take points commented club coach Massimiliano Allegri. ” We had 37 points before yesterday’s decision, one point off second place with a chance of qualifying for the Champions League and possibly a title shot. So we have to keep doing what we have to do because the final decision will be in the next two months. “, he added. The club has already announced its desire to file an appeal with the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).
The club targeted for accounting fraud during transfers
The Italian sports body notably accuses the Turin club of having overvalued the selling prices of certain players such as Arthur and Miralem Pjanic during their transfers and recorded artificially inflated capital gains in its accounts to limit its losses in the balance sheets presented to the investors between 2018 and 2021.
The club’s ex-leaders also received heavy penalties: two years of suspension for its former president Andrea Agnelli; two and a half years for ex-sporting director Fabio Paratici, now at Tottenham, and eight months for Pavel Nedvěd, the club’s Czech legend and former vice-president.
Juventus had initially been acquitted with ten other clubs last spring, before the Federation Court of Appeal agreed to reopen the file following new elements transmitted by the Italian justice on the accounts of the club. In this case, only Juventus ended up being singled out by the Federation, all the other clubs having been acquitted. The authority has also decided to apply more severe sanctions than those requested by the federal prosecutor, who recommended a withdrawal of nine points in the classification.
This unprecedented sanction, in addition to the club’s financial losses estimated at 200 million euros over the past two seasons and the very close monitoring of UEFA, suggests the coming months will be eventful for the new management of the Turin club.