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The Italian giants have suffered a 15-point deduction in Sere A for financial irregularities, while some of the club’s former officials have also received punishments.
On Friday, shockwaves hit Italian football after news broke out that Juventus- one of Italy’s biggest club- have been docked 15 points for financial irregularities.
Although it had been long coming, not many people believed the punishment would be as hefty as the one FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio) announced following the Italian football court’s decision.
Juventus and a few other clubs in the league had been under investigation for falsifying players’ transfer fees among other financial irregularities.
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The Old Lady and other clubs were initially acquitted of the charges until prosecutors asked the court to reopen the case after finding new evidence. However, only Juventus were punished, with other clubs set free.
Why did FIGC dock Juventus 15 points?
First of all, Juventus have been punished for falsifying their financial activities, market manipulation, false corporate disclosures, fake invoicing and preventing the supervisory authority from performing its duty.
One of the many cases concerning false transfer fees includes the deal that took Miralem Pjanic to Barcelona, with Arthur Melo moving the other way.
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According to details from the deal, Arthur was valued at €72 million and Pjanic €60 million, but even though nowhere near that amount of cash was paid, both clubs could immediately book the values of the sales on their balance sheets.
As a result, clubs can spread the cost of a player purchase over the length of their contract in the form of 'amortisation' while capital gains from sales appear on that year's accounts. So that means Juve recorded a capital gain of €43 million on Pjanic, the second highest in the club's history, which is illegal.
Also, Juventus claimed in 2020- the pandemic year- that 23 players agreed to salary cuts for four months to help the club financially, but prosecutors say that the players only agreed to one month of salary deduction.
The prosecutors also discovered more alleged secret payments to former player Cristiano Ronaldo that were not reported by Juventus.
Who was involved in these scams?
The three main protagonists are Andrea Agnelli, Pavel Nedved and Fabio Paratici. Although all three are no longer at the club, they have all been punished.
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Agnelli has been banned for 16 months, while Nedved, who was the vice president under Agnelli, was handed an eight-month ban. The biggest punishment was handed to Paratici, who has been banned for 30 months.
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Paratici was Juventus’ Sporting Director during this period of financial irregularities at the club and was involved in most of the transfer deals. He has since left Juventus to take up the Sporting Director role at Tottenham Hotspur.
Although the ban only applies in Italy, meaning he can continue his job at Spurs, the FIGC will request for the sanction to be extended to Uefa and Fifa and therefore then apply worldwide.
What does this mean for Juventus?
This is as bad as it gets for Juventus as their already dire financial state is about to get worse. The last time they faced a similar or worse situation was in 2006, which saw the club demoted to Serie B and stripped of two Serie A titles.
That year, almost all their star players left, except for Gianluigi Buffon, Pavel Nedved and Alessandro Del Piero. Juventus will likely face a similar fate this year unless their appeal is successful.
They are set to miss out on the Champions League following the point deduction, which will deal a further blow to their already dying finances. As a result, they are likely to sell some of their most valuable players.
Considering the situation, the future looks dark for the Old Lady and their legion of fans.
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