Football

Serie A Giants docked 15 points by Juventus for their transfer dealings

The probe into the club’s prior transfer deals led to a 15-point deduction for Juventus, according to the Italian football association (FIGC).

The Serie A powerhouses were charged with manipulating their financial statements to make fictitious benefits from club transfers.

Juventus was in third place prior to the penalty, which will move them down to tenth.

Former club president Andrea Agnelli and vice-president Pavel Nedved both resigned from the board of directors in November.

Juventus has said they will appeal the ruling and has denied doing anything improper.

The club issued a statement saying they “await the publication of the grounds for the decision” but have already begun filing an appeal with the Italian Olympic Committee’s Sport Guarantee Board (CONI).

The FIGC’s punishment is more severe than the nine points that the prosecutors had asked for.]

Fabio Paratici, formerly of Juventus’ sports department and currently managing director of football at Tottenham, has received a 30-month suspension.

Agnelli and the club’s former CEO, Maurizio Arrivabene, were both given two-year suspensions by the FIGC, while current Sports Director Federico Cherubini received a 16-month suspension.

11 Juventus executives, both past and present, have been disciplined, with Nedved receiving an eight-month suspension.

According to the FIGC, every ban includes a request that the sentence be extended to Uefa and Fifa so that it will then be applied globally.

In April 2022, Juventus was initially cleared along with 10 other teams, including the reigning Serie A champions Napoli. 59 other people, including Paratici and Agnelli, were also exonerated.

The federal prosecutor made the decision to challenge that decision, which led to the reopening of the inquiry in December.

It came after fresh information from a different probe into Juve’s finances launched by prosecutors in Turin.

Nine of the original 11 clubs under investigation—including Serie A teams Juventus, Sampdoria, and Empoli—as well as 52 of its executives—were the subject of the motion to reopen the trial and impose fines.

The punishments imposed by the FIGC, according to Juventus’ attorneys, “constitute an obvious imbalance of treatment towards Juventus and its managers compared to any other company or member.”

“We remind out that as of right now, only Juventus and its managers are accused of breaking a rule, despite the fact that the same sports justice has repeatedly acknowledged its nonexistence,” they continued.

“We think this is also a glaring injustice against millions of fans, who we hope will soon receive redress in the next level of judgment,” the statement continued.

The departing board stated in a statement in November that it was “thought to be in the best social interest to urge that Juventus equip itself with a new board of directors to handle these concerns” after they announced their resignations.

Juventus won nine consecutive Serie A championships under Agnelli’s 13-year reign, but finished fourth last season and suffered a record-breaking 254 million euro (£220 million) loss.

At a Juventus shareholders meeting on Wednesday, a new board of directors was ratified, with Gianluca Ferrero taking his place as chairman.

Uefa is also looking into Juventus for possible violations of its club licensing and financial fair play rules, as was disclosed last month.

Atalanta will visit Juventus for their following league encounter on Sunday.

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