Juventus, which plays in the Italian men’s football league, received a 15-point penalty on Friday due to accounting-related abuses. The penalty given by the Italian Football Federation dropped Juventus, who were third in the standings, to tenth.
In addition, the former chairman of the club Andrea Agnelli was banned for two years in Italy. Similar punishments were also meted out to other members of the former club board. For example, a club legend, who served as vice president Pavel Nedved was suspended for eight months.
Among others, the former sports director received the punishments Fabio Paratici and former CEO Maurizio Arrivabene.
Paratici is currently the sporting director of English club Tottenham Hotspur. He received (switch to another service) 2.5 year ban from the Italian Football Federation. Arrivabene is known as the previous team boss of the F1 team Scuderia Ferrari. He got a two-year ban.
Current sports director Federico Cherubini was suspended for one year and four months.
Juventus’ board resigned in November after Turin prosecutors said they were investigating the club’s faulty accounting. In addition to the prosecutor’s office in Turin, the Italian prosecutor’s office and UEFA are conducting their own investigations into Juventus.
Juventus announced (you switch to another service) on Friday, that he has not acted improperly, and stated that his accounting is in accordance with the standards of the industry. The club said it will appeal the punishments to the Italian Sports Guarantee Board.
– Juventus will certainly file a complaint about the loss of points, but canceling or changing that penalty is considered very unlikely, says Mitri Pakkanen.
Pakkanen, a freelance journalist who has worked in football for a long time in Italy, says that in the case of Juventus, it is about several issues related to player deals and other financial management.
– I don’t want to be too pessimistic, but according to the information leaked to the public from insiders, this is by far the biggest football scandal in Italy since Calciopoli. In light of this information, the situation does not look good, Pakkanen states.
Former CFO of Juventus Stefano Bertola said in July 2021 (you will switch to another service) to the director of sports, Cherubini, that the situation is now as bad as during the 2006 football scandal, i.e. Calciopoli.
– Then we were attacked from all directions – this time we caused everything ourselves, Bertola said.
Juventus is manipulating the market
It is believed in the media that Juventus has tried by all means to improve its financial situation in order to succeed in Europe.
In recent years, Juventus has been by far the most successful football team in Italy. Between 2012 and 2021, the team won nine consecutive Italian championships and five Italian cups. US media according to the Athletic (you will be transferred to another service) Juventus was a model club until 2018.
But club football’s greatest achievement, winning the Champions League, has remained a dream. Final losses in 2015 and 2017 and Cristiano Ronaldo an expensive transfer fee and player contract in 2018 pushed Juventus to the edge of the tab.
We fell into the abyss when the corona pandemic made the economic situation even more difficult. In November 2021, Juventus received its second major capital increase in three years. The total value of the capital increases was 700 million euros.
As the listed company’s capital base was strengthened, Juventus was obliged to undergo an audit by the Italian economic authority CONSOB (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa) regarding income from player rights.
Pakkanen says that in addition to these, the case involves complex bureaucratic and legal issues. The Italian prosecutor’s office investigated Juventus and ten other clubs for suspicious player transfers last year, but charges dismissed (you move to another service) in April.
– At least the public does not yet have all the possible patterns that may be in the background in detail.
It is almost certain that the prosecutor’s office in Turin opened the investigation because it believed that Juventus had embellished its accounting, falsified its financial statements and manipulated the market.
Chiellini conceded the salary cap
The Prisma investigation by the Turin prosecutor’s office began in May 2021. The agency received help from, among others, the Italian financial police, which raided Juventus’ training centers and offices.
According to the BBC (you will switch to another service) the investigation report contains 14,000 pages of text. According to the investigation, Juventus had an incorrect balance in its accounting for the 2018–21 financial years. Falsified profits were made from player transfers and loans, as well as alleged savings that were said to have come from player pay cuts.
Artificial profit from player transfers was theoretically made by legal means, and several football clubs operate in the same way. The formula is roughly as follows.
The football club will buy a player in 2022 for 50 million euros and divide the expenses into the budgets of the coming years. But when the same player is sold in 2026, the compensation paid for the transfer is recorded in full in the same year’s budget. This is how a profit is made: the compensation paid in 2022 is divided over four years, but in 2026, 50 million euros will rush into the coffers.
22 accounting falsifications similar to those described above were recorded in the investigation report. The Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office and CONSOB stated that Juventus made a distorted profit of 156 million euros in 2018-19 and 2020-21. In the years 2021–22, a profit of 60 million euros was made.
The invented savings came from the players’ salary cuts. Juventus announced (you switch to another service) in March 2020, coaches and players agreed to pay cuts for four months. I told you that there will be savings of up to 90 million euros.
In reality, only one month’s salary was cut. The salary for the remaining three months was paid as bonuses to those who stayed with the company, and as incentives to those who left. Savings of 90 million euros were recorded in the accounting, although in reality the amount was only 22 million euros.
Also the former captain of Juventus Giorgio Chiellini agreed (you switch to another service) procedure when he was interviewed during the investigation. However, he said he does not know what was entered in the records.
In addition to all this, Juventus has promised to pay 19.6 million euros to Ronaldo, who has already left the club. This is revealed by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Seran from publishing (you switch to another service) “On the Cristiano Ronaldo paper”. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, this debt has not been recorded in Juventus’ accounting.
Juventus as part of several degrees
The findings of the Prisma investigation by the Turin prosecutor’s office also prompted the Italian prosecutor’s office to act. At the end of December, a new charge was filed.
Clubs and their representatives allegedly operate on the “service for service” principle and organize player trades in an organized manner to obtain a distorted profit.
In addition, the European football association UEFA explores (you switch to another service), whether Juventus has violated Uefa’s licensing and financial fair play rules. Juventus’ sanctions are not necessarily limited to point losses.
According to Mitri Pakkanen, Juventus’ situation does not look good now if we only think about this and next season.
– If next season’s European place remains unattainable due to the minus points, it will affect the finances of the club in the coming seasons as well as the attraction and interest in the minds of potential new players.
Along with Juventus, similar accounting violations are suspected eight other Italian clubs (you switch to another service). According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, these clubs are Sampdoria, Empoli, Genoa, Pisa, Pescara, Parma, Pro Vercelli and Novara.
– So far, it’s as if they’ve gotten away with it. I’m almost certain that the skein won’t end there, Pakkanen says.