Italian football federation (FIGC) has hit Serie A giants Juventus with a 15-point deduction as a sanction following an investigation into their transfer businesses in the past.
The Old Lady were accused of financial misdoings and false accounting as a result of cooking their balance sheets through artificial gains from club transfers.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side are currently third in the Serie A standings, however, the points deduction will see them drop to 10th with 22 points, same as Bologna and Empoli.
Following the sanction imposed on the club, former Sports Director Fabio Paratici, now Tottenham’s managing director of football, has been handed a 30-month ban.
Juventus’ former chief executives, Andrea Agnelli and Maurizio Arrivabene, were also hit with two-year bans from holding offices in Italian football.
The club’s current sports director, Federico Cherubini has been given a 16-month ban for his hand in the capital gain violations.
A total of 11 former and current Juventus executives were also recipients of sanctions, including former midfielder and ex-vice president of the board of directors Pablo Nedved, who was given an eight-month suspension.
The FIGC disclosed that they have also asked for all the punishments to be imposed worldwide and extended to UEFA and FIFA as well.
This penalty comes exactly 17 years after the famous “Calciopoli” scandal that saw Juventus stripped of two Serie A titles and demoted to the second division, Serie B.
How did this all begin?
The investigations into the financial records of 11 Serie A clubs, including league leaders Napoli, began last year but they were all acquitted in April 2022, along with Paratici, Agnelli and 57 other executives.
However, because the federal prosecutor decided to appeal the initial judgment, the investigation was restarted in December.
These appeals followed new evidence from a separate inquiry into Juventus’ finances, and the request to reopen the trial was mostly for nine of the original 11 clubs, including Juventus, Sampdoria, and Empoli, as well as 52 of the executives at those clubs.
After this, the court confirmed that eight of these nine clubs and their respective directors in the newly reopened investigation were not guilty.
The FIGC’s sanctions are more severe than what prosecutors initially requested, which was a nine-point deduction.
