Juventus 15 points have been deducted for the current season as Italy’s football court investigates its transfer dealings, the national football federation (FIGC) said on Friday.
The decision, which will also hurt the club’s reputation, is tougher than the nine-point cut requested earlier in the day by a football prosecutor during a hearing looking into the way Juventus and several other teams conduct player exchange deals.
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With 20 games left to play this season, Juve are third in Serie A with 37 points, 10 behind the leaders Napoli. The cut pushes them out of the qualification places for the lucrative European competition to 10th place.
In a late-night statement, the court banned 11 former and current directors of Juventus from holding positions in Italian football.
Andrea Agnelli, who was replaced as chairman this week after formally resigning in November, was given 24 months and former sporting director Fabio Paratissi, managing director of football at the English Premier League club, was given 30 months. Tottenham Hotspur.
Juventus said it would appeal to the country’s Sports Guarantee Board after the reasons for the decision were published.
“We consider this to be a gross injustice to millions of fans, which we believe will soon be resolved in another court,” the club’s lawyers said in a statement.
Juventus has denied wrongdoing and says its accounting conforms to industry standards.
The club is controlled by the Exor holding company of the Agnelli family and its shares are listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.
The decision overturned an earlier ruling in April to clear Juventus, 10 other clubs and their executives of wrongdoing.
Soccer officials reopened the case and requested a partial annulment of the initial decision so they could evaluate new documents collected by Turin city public prosecutors investigating Juventus’ finances.
The court confirmed the acquittal of eight other football clubs, including Serie A Sampdoria and Empoliand their directors, for whom prosecutors also wanted to reopen the case.
Prosecutors in Turin have requested that Agnelli, 11 other people and the club itself be tried on charges of false accounting.
Juventus shareholders appointed a new slimmed-down, five-member board earlier this week with Gianluca Ferrero – an accountant close to John Elkann, a senior business figure in the family that has owned the club for a century – replacing Agnelli later as chairman. More than 10 years.
