Very harsh punishment against Juventus Turin: The Italian record champions will be deducted 15 points in the current Serie A season after a ruling by the FIGC court of appeal for falsified financial reports. The club had used transfers to artificially improve its balance sheet. Juventus can appeal the verdict to Italy’s Olympic Committee CONI.
The association also imposed lengthy bans on 11 members of the club’s former management, including ex-president Andrea Agnelli (24 months) and his deputy Pavel Nedved (8). Juventus have scored 37 points so far this season. The deduction would mean a fall from third to eleventh place in the table.
The Court of Appeal, meanwhile, upheld the acquittals of the other eight accused clubs (Sampdoria, Pro Vercelli, Genoa, Parma, Pisa, Empoli, Novara and Pescara) and their respective directors and managers. A total of 52 officials faced the allegations. Last May, all nine clubs – including Juventus – were initially acquitted. However, the FIGC had appealed against this.
The clubs were accused of fraudulently falsifying their balance sheets. According to the indictment, the clubs reported significantly higher capital gains and benefit claims in their budget reports than actually existed by using fantasy values for players.