On Monday, Juventus was handed a 10-point penalty by an Italian court. This new punishment was due to false accounting in the club’s transfer dealings and dropped Juventus from second to seventh place in Serie A. The latest ruling has put a damper on Juventus’ chances of qualifying for next year’s Champions League. With just two rounds remaining in the Serie A season, Juventus is five points behind AC Milan, who now holds the final qualifying spot for the Champions League. To make matters worse, following the announcement of the penalty, Juventus suffered a 4-1 loss against lowly Empoli.
Juventus expressed their disappointment with the decision on Twitter, stating that they “take note” of the court’s verdict and “reserve the right” to file a new appeal at Italy’s top sports body. The club also added that the latest punishment “arouses great bitterness in the club and in its millions of supporters who, in the absence of clear rules, find themselves extremely penalized with the application of sanctions that do not seem to take into account the principle of proportionality.”
This recent penalty is not the first time Juventus has faced such consequences. In January, the team was handed a 15-point penalty, and several members of Juventus’ former board were given bans from soccer activities, including former president Andrea Agnelli. Although the points deduction was suspended last month pending an appeal to the country’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee, it was referred back to the soccer federation’s appeals court for a new trial, which took place on Monday.
During the three-hour hearing, federation prosecutor Giuseppe Chine requested an 11-point penalty for Juventus. Additionally, he requested eight-month bans for seven former Juventus directors, including Pavel Nedvěd, but they were cleared on Monday. However, Agnelli and three others had their appeals rejected last month.
The Juventus board resigned en masse in November following an investigation by Turin public prosecutors into alleged false bookkeeping. Juventus’ legal troubles deepened still further last week after the Italian soccer federation also charged the club and seven former team directors with alleged fraud for the way they handled player salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic.
