Juventus' Moise Kean celebrates scoring twice against Lazio in the Serie A
On-loan Everton striker Moise Kean scored twice in Juventus' 3-0 win over Lazio in their final pre-World Cup game

If there was a series of disappointing results for the Bianconeri in the years to come, it could be worse.

The Bianconeri are about to return to league play.

After six victories in a row, the Bianconeri moved up to third in the league, two points behind AC Milan and 10 behind Napoli.

Fans and the club don't care about results. Off the pitch, what happened does as well.

The Italian Federal Council, as well as public prosecutors in Torino, are investigating the team.

The scandal of 2006 was the worst in the last fifteen years. "Then we got attacked from all sides - this time we created it all ourselves," said the former chief financial officer.

The facts

Former Juventus vice-president Pavel Nedved (left) and president Andrea Agnelli (right)
Former vice-president Pavel Nedved (left) played 247 times for Juventus between 2001 and 2009

The president and vice-president of the board of directors resigned in October of 2022. The most successful president in the history of the club was forced to step down after 12 years and nine consecutive league titles.

The club inaugurated several state-of-the-art assets during his tenure. He was successful.

Their lack of silverware in Europe, as well as the signing of CR7 in August of last year, pushed them towards a ravine.

The value of the club was 1.7 billion euro in September of last year. The club is worth 700 million euro despite the recapitalisations in December 2019. There is a mix of events.

Fraud and false accounting have been put in place to make their books look better than they really are. The investigating authorities claim that they didn't do their job by not showing all their financial operations.

The allegations

There are different lines of investigations.

Thousands of pages of wire-tapping, bugged, electronic documents and paperwork were opened by the public prosecutors in May of 2021.

The club as an entity and 12 of its top representatives have been indicted. They are accused of market manipulation, false corporate disclosures, fake invoicing, and preventing the authority from doing its job.

Artificial gains are the first line of concern. A club buys a player for 50 million and writes off the initial cost over time. If the club sells him for 50m in 2026, that amount can be set aside. The capital gain takes place here because the club has already written off the value, but it still budgets the full amount it sells him for. It can be used to improve balance sheets.

Consob, the authority for all Italian companies listed on the stock exchange, detected 156 million euro of artificial gains in the last three years.

Everyone at Juventus was aware of what was happening, according to investigators.

There has been an extensive use of capital gains, but the market crashed. The board was aware that we used corrections.

The sport directors took it too far.

The investigators focus on mirror operations. The swap of Arthur and Miralem Plemjanic with Barcelona in 2020 is the most resounding concern, with both players worth 75 million euro.

There was a black book in Cherubini's office. It is alleged that the former chief of football made a lot of suspect transfer operations. The current sporting director wrote about excessive use of capital gains.

The second line of investigation deals with fake savings from players' salaries.

The second operation, which involved 17 players, is now under scrutiny. The players were asked to waive four months' wages and save 90 million euro.

The other three would be paid at a later stage as bonuses to those who would stay and as incentives to leave the club to those who would leave. The agreements were seized at the law firm of Restano in Torino.

90m euro savings were reported in the books by the company. That should have been less than 22m.

Cristiano Ronaldo when he played for Juventus
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 81 goals in 98 games for Juventus before leaving for Manchester United

He never received his part after leaving the club. According to a paper called the 'CristianoRonald Paper', Juventus owe him almost 20 million euro.

Gabasio and Cherubini said that the document should not exist. Lawyers forRonaldo requested access to all procedural documents. He wants his money.

Giorgio Chiellini, the former captain of Los Angeles FC, was questioned about the topic on 4 April.

Chiellini spoke to his teammates to accommodate the club's request. We decided to give up our salaries for four months because of the promise that some of them would be paid. We were certain that we would get three months at a later stage, the following year or over the course of more years, and that those who left would get specific incentives. We were all aware that the press release would have something different to say.

The federal prosecutor has been following the case. A number of clubs and representatives have been indicted again, despite being cleared of the artificial gains allegations. An organised system and a budget-planning scheme to acquire players were identified by the federal prosecutor.

Paratici's relationships with other executives would have led to the transfer of players. They expected each other to give them favours. Dejan Kulusevski moved from Atalanta toJuventus in 2020 for 44 million euro, despite the fact that the Bianconeri had already signed him for a higher price.

There is still an investigation going on at the FIGC.

The investigation was opened in December. Each club needs a club license from its national association in order to participate in European competition. If the allegations are true, the financial violations that led to their downfall came from them.

In August, the Bianconeri signed a settlement agreement with Uefa, which allowed them to pay 3.5m euro to cover their balance problems between 2019 and 2022, if they were able to level off their imbalances by 2025.

Uefa has the right to take legal steps if that doesn't happen.

The European Super League project and the possible violation of Uefa's legal framework in connection with it are still under investigation by the club. The Prisma investigation has nothing to do with this and could bring more financial sanctions for the clubs involved.

Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona badges
Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona said they will continue with plans to launch a European Super League

What Juventus really risk

There could be a range of punishments for the representatives of the club. They could be fined a lot for false corporate disclosures.

If new evidence showed their artificial capital gains were decisive to join, what would happen? They would be punished with fines and restrictions for their representatives. It should not be excluded if that seems unlikely.

If they were found to have broken the financial fair play in order to get a licence, they could be banned from European tournaments.

What happens next?

There are no wrongdoings by the people of Juventus. They point to the revocation of their clearance as proof of their correct behavior.

Private letters with players state that the club did not guarantee delayed payments. Chiellini's words don't agree.

The new president and general manager of the club are two of Elkann's closest associates. The board of directors will start on January 18 with the task of defending the club.

Alessandro del Piero will not be included on the board.

Cherubini and Massimiliano Allegri will be in charge of the playing side. The changing room needs to be kept free of financial issues.

What would happen if the Bianconeri didn't make the playoffs? Is that also their end?

The Agnelli family's 100 years of ownership has begun with a lot of distraction for the Bianconeri.

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