Juventus Turin, already under threat of a sporting sanction, will also be tried for salary adjustments, as well as suspicious agreements with other Italian clubs.
Juventus Turin, which is awaiting a final sports sanction in a suspicious transfer file, will also be tried for other alleged accounting offenses, the Italian Football Federation announced on Friday.
The bianconero club and several ex-leaders including former president Andrea Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedved and sporting director Fabio Paratici, have been sent to federal court for the club’s deferred payment of certain player salaries, without having any duly referred to the authorities, according to the Federation.
These “manoeuvres” on wages, aimed at artificially lowering the losses in the annual balance sheets during the Covid-19 pandemic, had been noted by the Turin public prosecutor’s office in a judicial investigation targeting Juve. The club is accused of having officially announced the non-payment of several months’ wages but of having in fact agreed with its players, via private agreements, to pay a large part of them over a subsequent financial year.
The Turin leaders are accused of having filed with the Italian League the non-payment agreements of four monthly installments (March to June 2020) for 21 players and the coach, but not the private agreements agreed with them to settle three. out of four later, details the Federation in its press release. Similar maneuvers would have been carried out in the following season 2020/21.
Contentious agreements with other clubs
The Old Lady is also accused of having concluded “confidential agreements“With other clubs (Sampdoria, Atalanta, Udinese, Bologna, Cagliari) during transfers, without the knowledge of the authorities.
Faced with all these accusations, Juve ured in April that they had “correctly applied international accounting standards” and to have “operated in full respect of the principle of sporting loyalty“.
However, she risks a new sanction, after the one that already weighs above her head in the case of capital gains deemed artificial during transfers. In this last case, the Federation Court of Appeal will re-examine the penalty imposed on the club on Monday.
Juve had suffered a withdrawal of fifteen points in the league in January but this penalty was suspended in April. It should, according to the media, be reessed downwards.