The Court of Appeal of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) justified this Monday the sanction to Juventus for having increased the market value of its players to obtain more benefits from their subsequent sale.
This file used by the Turin club generates a fictitious added value that allowed the entity to balance its balance sheets for at least three years (2019, 2020 and 2021), thus reducing losses, not recapitalizing and strengthening the team by not seeing the salary cap lower.
“Juve committed a sports disciplinary infraction, given the seriousness and the repeated and prolonged nature of the infraction,” explained the FIGC, in a 36-page report.
In the same text, he explains that Juventus was found guilty “for the documentation seized from the managers, the unequivocal intersections (wiretapping) and the subsequent evidence related to the concealment of documentation and even manipulation of invoices.”
The Court upheld the sanctions imposed on the leaders involved, including Andrea Agnelli [ex-presidente do Conselho Diretivo] (two-year suspension), and the acquittal of the other eight clubs involved (Sampdoria, Pro Vercelli, Genoa, Parma, Pisa, Empoli, Novara and Pescara) and their respective managers and coaches.
“The omnipresence at all levels of awareness of the artificiality of the company’s own ‘modus operandi’ is impressive: from the sports director at the time (Paratici) to his immediate collaborator (Cherubini) or from the president of the Board of Directors (Agnelli ) to the director- (Arrivabene),” the FIGC noted in the report.
The name of the ‘Juve’ coach, the Italian Massimiliano Allegri, also appears in the report as being aware of the club’s practice, but to a lesser extent and acting in “good faith”.
“In some cases, they acted with a global awareness of the artificiality of the operations carried out. In other cases, with a more superficial conscience, or perhaps even in good faith. [referindo-se a Allegri]but in any case it is concluded that they were all aware, directly or indirectly, of a situation that was now out of control”, can still be read in the document.
The Italian club now has 30 days to appeal to the Italian Olympic Committee’s Sports Guarantee College (CONI), the country’s third and final level of sports justice.
‘Juve’ is also being investigated for a possible case of tax fraud, since it guaranteed that it had agreed to a salary reduction for its players to alleviate the economic situation generated by the pandemic, but the Public Ministry verified that the agreement was not a wage waiver , but deferred payment for three of the four agreed months (from March to June 2020).
The payment is not included in the exercise of that year, so the Public Ministry considers it a crime of tax fraud.
The Italian court had sanctioned Juventus with 15 points, deductible in this edition of Serie A, after the investigation for alleged financial irregularities in the hiring of players during the covid-19 pandemic.
The FIGC had asked for a nine-point penalty, but the Federal Court of Appeals went further and applied the harsh penalty to the Turin team, which meant that the Turin team had fallen from third place, with 37 points, to 11, with 22.
Source: TSF
