May 22, 2023, 3:33 PM
May 22, 2023, 3:33 PM
Juventus of Turin has been sanctioned with the withdrawal of 10 points from the classificationafter the downward revision of the initial penalty (15 points) for accounting fraud, which complicates their options to play in the next Champions League.
This new decision of the Italian sports court pushes Juventus back from 2nd to 7th place in the Serie A standings, remaining five points behind 4th place (occupied by AC Milan), the last one that gives access to play in the next edition of the Champions League.
The Juve could put to two points of the Rossoneri, but this Monday they lost on their visit to Empoli.
These ten penalty points dmust be discounted “in the current season”, according to the ruling published by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).
the court of appeal was somewhat more lenient than the attorney general, that in the morning he requested a sanction of eleven points.
The most successful club in Italian football was sanctioned on January 20 with a withdrawal of 15 points for having artificially reduced their losses by making capital gains deemed overvalued in the sale of some players between 2018 and 2021.
In April, Juve did not achieve the pure and simple annulment of the sanction, but it did convince the judges of the College of Guarantees, the highest instance of sports justice in Italy and dependent on the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), to return the case to the FIGC appeal court so that it “renews its appreciation” on the same.
This school did confirm “a voluntary and repeated alteration of accounting deeds” by Juventus, although it had suspended the sanction until the individual responsibilities of some former club leaders were clarified, such as the former vice president Pavel Nedved, who in this latest hearing was acquitted.
Yes, the sanctions for three other leaders were confirmed in April: two and a half year ban against former sports director Fabio Paraticiwho left Tottenham when he learned of the sanction, two years for former president Andrea Agnelli and 16 months against the current sports director, Federico Cherubini.
– Under UEFA surveillance –
The soap opera has not finished yet, since Juventus can still appeal the sentence again, with which the final decision could be known beyond the current season, which ends on June 4.
In a statement made public after learning of the decision, Juventus indicated that reserves the right to appeal before the College of Guarantees.
The judicial problems for Juventus do not end in this case, since the FIGC has yet to decide whether to sanction the club, with a fine or with the withdrawal of points, for another alleged illegality: having deferred the payment of its players’ salaries during the covid pandemic, also with the aim of artificially reducing their losses in annual financial statements.
The decision on this case, however, it should not be known before next autumn (Boreal).
These judicial processes led Agnelli to resign as president of Juventus at the end of last November.
The future looks complicated for Juventus, since UEFA is also investigating him for “supposed accounting irregularities”forcing the entity to submit to a financial adjustment plan in three years to respect financial ‘fair-play’.
