Global Courant 2023-04-21 00:11:53
Juventus plays its home games at the Allianz Stadium in Turin
Juventus’ penalty of 15 points for transfer transactions has been overturned and Italy’s top sports court has ordered a re-examination of the case.
Juve was punished in January after being found guilty of false accounting.
The club has now moved up from seventh to third in Serie A, but could still be penalized at a new hearing at a later date.
Tottenham director of football Fabio Paratici lost his appeal against a 30 months suspension as part of the same case.
The former Juve sporting director was one of 11 club directors, former or still in office at the time of the ruling, to be sanctioned.
He stepped back from his Spurs role as his ban was increased to worldwide, at the same time as the North London club began looking for a replacement for former manager Antonio Conte.
Like Paratici, the appeals of former president Andrea Agnelli, ex-CEO Maurizio Arrivabene and sports director Federico Cherubini were rejected.
Former player and director Pavel Nedved, Paolo Garimberti and Enrico Vellano were successful in their profession.
Instead of the club being acquitted, Juve’s case now goes back to the Italian Football Federation’s appeals court, the body that imposed the initial sentence.
With eight games left in the season, AC Milan have been knocked out of the Champions League by Juve, while Roma drop to fourth place.
Why were Juventus cut 15 points?
The Old Lady was given a points deduction following an investigation into the club’s past two-year transfer dealings from 2019 to 2021 by the governing body of Italian football (FIGC).
Juventus were accused of correcting their balance sheets through artificial profits of around €60 million from club transfers, charges they were found guilty of in January by the FIGC’s appeals court.
However, the club denied all allegations and went to a tribunal of the Olympic Committee, Italy’s highest sports court.
The tribunal did not rule on the merits of the case, instead examining the legal legitimacy of the punishments meted out to the club and directors by the FIGC.
Juventus were among a number of Serie A clubs cleared last year of suspicious transfer activity by a court case from the FIGC appeals court, but the investigation into the club was reopened amid new evidence from a separate criminal investigation into their finances.
The 15-point penalty was harsher than the nine-point prosecutors had requested.
Who are the persons involved?
Agnelli and the rest of the club’s board, including former midfielder Nedved, retired in November while the investigation was underway.
At the time, a statement said the resignation was “deemed to be in the best social interest to recommend Juventus equip itself with a new board of directors to address these issues”.
The chairman had managed the club for 13 years, during which time Juventus won nine consecutive Serie A titles and reached two Champions League finals.
But last year they made a loss of £220 million – a record for an Italian club.
Agnelli and Arrivabene were banned from Italian football for two years and Nedved was given an eight-month suspension.
Cherubini and Paratici were suspended in their own country for 16 months and 2.5 years respectively.
Paratici left the club to become general manager at Tottenham ahead of the January ruling, but his suspension was globally extended by FIFA in March – a decision the 50-year-old is also appealing.
Juventus also faces an investigation from UEFA into possible breaches of club licensing and financial fair play rules, which were announced last month.
