Juve fined and president banned over tickets for ultras
ROME: The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) have fined Juventus, their most successful team, over an alleged scheme of giving tickets to hardcore fans to buy peace in the club’s terraces.
FIGC had fined the club 300,000 (RM1.5mil) and given further fines and temporary bans to four of their executives including president Andrea Agnelli on Monday.
Juventus said they would appeal against the ruling. They denied wrongdoing and said they had always worked with police to ensure public safety and order.
Investigators had been looking into whether the club gave tickets to fans known as ultras to avoid violence or racial abuse in the stands that might bring fines or docked points.
Such a large number of tickets had been given out over such a long period of time that rules on contributing to fan clubs would have been violated, the FIGC said, although there was insufficient proof that the recipients were touts or criminals.
“It is no mystery that the entire management was committed to repairing relations with the ultras,” the ruling read.
Agnelli, a scion of the family that owns carmaker Fiat Chrysler, said in May he met the ultras to make sure they did not feel discriminated against, and to avoid “problems of public order”.
The FIGC said Agnelli was not guilty of separate accusations that he knowingly met with a member of the powerful ‘Ndrangheta mafia group who was involved in the ticket scam.
When he met alleged mobster Rocco Dominello – who has denied any wrongdoing – Agnelli was “totally unaware” of any illegality, the FIGC wrote in their ruling.
Agnelli, who is also the head of the European Club Association (ECA), is now suspended from his role at Juventus for a year and will have to
pay a 20,000 (RM99,000) penalty.
The three other officials have been given the same fine and banned from their posts for up to one year and three months. — Reuters