The board of directors of Juventus has resigned en bloc, chairman Andrea Agnelli and vice-chairman Pavel Nedved, among others, informed the Italian Serie A club on Monday about falsification of accounts.
General manager Maurizio Arrivabene has been invited to stay on during the transition period until a new board of directors is formed, the Italian club’s statement said.
Andrea Agnell thus leaves the leadership of the ‘vecchia signora’ after having led it for 12 years. Andrea was the fourth Agnelli to chair the club, after his grandfather Edoardo, his uncle Gianni and his father Umberto.
The board resigned en bloc “after considering the relevance of the outstanding legal and technical accounting matters,” the club said, citing the ongoing investigation.
Since last year, Turin authorities have been investigating alleged false accounting and suspected irregularities in the transfer and loan of players at the Italian club.
The outgoing board “considered it to be in the best interest to recommend” Juventus have a new board of directors to deal with these issues, the statement reads, with the next shareholder meeting scheduled for December 27.
Juventus are under investigation for more than €282 million in capital gains from a series of player transfers included in the corresponding financial results for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
At issue are the recent investigations by the transalpine authorities into two alleged fiscal ‘manoeuvres’ by Juventus, linked to the notional inflation of the market prices of first-team players in order to gain larger profits from their subsequent sales, and the postponement of payments to players in the fiscal year 2020, marked by the covid-19 pandemic, so that the funds were not taken into account in the relevant fiscal year.
As for the last point, the agreement with the players will include the temporary waiver of four months’ salary, and among them will be the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, according to various Italian media.
The news reports that during the October house searches, Turin’s tax authorities found a document in which Juventus pledged to pay 19.8 million euros to Ronaldo, the exact amount equivalent to four months’ salary, in an ongoing investigation.
The Turin Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the possibility that Juventus, listed on the Italian stock exchange, provided false information to investors and sent invoices for non-existent transactions.
A string of transfers involving Juventus and other clubs is also the subject of a parallel investigation launched last October by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).
What is discovered by Turin prosecutors will be passed on to the FIGC, which has the power to punish clubs with fines and even expulsion from the league.
The Italian club says it will continue to cooperate with the authorities.
With Lusa
News updated at 23:22
Source: DN
