Football: Italian FA to investigate Juventus for alleged pay irregularities

ROME – Italy’s football association, the FIGC, has opened an investigation into allegations that Juventus paid salaries to their players that were different to those they publicly reported.

The Ansa news agency reported that the FIGC prosecutor has started looking into allegations of secret salary payments in 2020 and 2021.

The board of Juventus,

including chairman Andrea Agnelli

and chief executive officer Maurizio Arrivabene, resigned on Monday and the Agnelli family proposed accountant Gianluca Ferrero take over as chairman as the club seek to get to grips with their financial and legal troubles.

Juventus’ financial statements have undergone scrutiny by prosecutors and Italian market regulator Consob in recent months, investigating accusations of false accounting and market manipulation.

Juventus did not reply to a Reuters request for comment but, in Monday’s announcement, denied any wrongdoing, saying only that a revamp was “in the best interest of the company”.

It added that directors concluded that current issues would be best addressed by a new board, given “the pending legal, technical and accounting matters”, and the club would have to restate their financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 2022.

Agnelli, who has chaired Juventus since 2010, was one of the architects of the failed 2021 attempt to set up a breakaway European Super League together with other top clubs.

Under his tenure, Juventus secured nine consecutive Serie A titles but failed to win Europe’s prestigious Champions League.

After the first trophy-less season for a decade, Juventus were knocked out of Europe’s top club competition at the group stage in October and are currently third in Serie A.

The loss-making club have also been hit by rising costs linked to players’ salaries and the coronavirus pandemic, and have been forced to ask shareholders for €700 million (S$991 million) in cash injections in three years.

On Tuesday, Spain’s La Liga demanded “immediate” sports sanctions be applied on Juventus for allegedly breaching European football’s financial fair play rules.

Lawyers and governance experts

The Agnellis’ holding company Exor owns about 64 per cent of Juventus shares and controls about 78 per cent of voting rights. The club have called for a shareholder meeting on Jan 18 to appoint a new board.

Juventus have appointed Maurizio Scanavino, CEO of privately-held media group Gedi, which is also owned by Exor, as general manager while Arrivabene will keep his position on a temporary basis.

Exor’s head John Elkann said candidates for the board would be picked from lawyers and corporate governance experts to help the club address legal challenges.

In a letter to Juventus staff seen by Reuters, Agnelli described the club’s situation as “delicate”.

“When the team is not cohesive, it becomes vulnerable and that can be fatal,” he wrote. “This is when you need to keep calm and contain damages... Better to quit all together, giving the chance to a new team to turn the game around.”

On Tuesday, Ferrari, also controlled by the Agnellis, accepted the resignation of their Formula One team boss Mattia Binotto in another reshuffle at Exor’s sporting assets. REUTERS