Juventus agree plea deal and avoid further point deduction
JUVENTUS have avoided another point deduction in the Serie A as they agreed a plea deal with the federal court of the Italian football association FIGC to pay a fine of ?718,240 ($770,230).
The sanction relate to salary manoeuvres. In 2020, Juventus released a statement announcing that their players would formally waive four months worth of wages due to the emerging Covid-19 pandemic.
But prosecutors accused the club of secretly agreeing to
pay their players these wages in the form of bonuses in following seasons. A FIGC statement on Tuesday said that a condition for the agreement is that Juventus don’t appeal a 10-point deduction in another trial for artificially inflating the value of players in their accounts using capital gains, which the club accepted.
With the points deduction, Juventus won’t be able to qualify for the Champions League next season. With one matchday to go, they could still claim a spot in the Europa League or in the Conference League.
However, observers suspect
European football ruling body UEFA could still issue a ban because of the sports law proceedings against the Italian club.
The FIGC sports court decided to punish Juventus with a 15-point deduction in January. According to the investigation, the financial violations saved the club some ?90 million between 2018 and 2020 alone.
In April, however, the supreme sports court of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) reversed the initial 15-point deduction and ordered a new trial to take place at the sports court of
the Italian football federation FIGC. A 10-point deduction was then issued.
In addition to the point deduction, former club bosses were also punished individually. Former president Andrea Agnelli was banned for two years from any activities in Italian football, while former vice president Pavel Nedved was banned for eight months.
Agnelli had his appeal rejected in April and didn’t agree to the plea deal. According to FIGC on Tuesday, he will be judged on June 15.
Nedved, meanwhile, was successful in appealing against his ban.