We will no longer see the blonde hair of Pavel Nedved agitated in the gallery. The former Czech glory of Italian club Juventus Turin, who has become its vice-president since 2015, tendered his resignation on Monday. Just like all the members of the board of directors, including its president Andrea Agnelli, for twelve years at the head of the institution. The information was confirmed by the Piedmont club by press release on Monday evening.
Juve chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene has been instructed to stay put. He will deal with current affairs until a new council is formed, said Juventus, which ensures that the club “will continue to collaborate and cooperate with supervisory and industry authorities.” Businessman Guianluca Ferrero, also a chartered accountant, has been recommended as the new president of Juventus Turin, the Italian club’s main shareholder, the Exor investment fund, still owned by the family, announced on Tuesday. Agnelli, who owns 64% of the club. The next general meeting will be held on January 18.
Monday evening, the Italian newspaper The Gazetta dello Sport published the letter written by the now ex-president Andrea Agnelli, addressed to the “Juventus planet”. Far from explaining the reasons for his departure, he nevertheless claims to want to continue “to imagine and work for better football”, before quoting Friedrich Nietzsche. “And those who were seen dancing were considered crazy by those who could not hear the music”, wrote the man who had been at the head of the club since July 2010, fifty years after his father Giovanni, the historic leader of Fiat. Under his leadership, Juventus once again became a big Italian and won the Scudetto nine times in a row, from 2012 to 2020.
In its press release, the bianconero club recalls more soberly that the council has “considered it to be in the best social interest” to resign, “considering the centrality and relevance of the outstanding legal and technical-accounting issues”, says the club press release. A direct allusion to the investigation being carried out by the Italian justice system.
155 million euros of “fictitious” capital gains
Because for more than a year, the Turin prosecutor’s office has been interested in the practice of “false exchanges” of players that Juventus has practiced on several occasions. We are talking about cross-selling with other clubs, without exchanging money but still allowing capital gains to be recorded in the balance sheets. According to the Italian media, these “fictitious” capital gains are estimated at some 155 million euros between 2018 and 2021 by the magistrates. Listed on the stock exchange, the club would also have concealed from its investors the existence of private agreements concluded with players. In particular with the Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo, passed by the Old Lady between 2018 and 2021.
Juventus nevertheless intends to defend themselves. The club estimated on Monday to have “again considered the objections of the public prosecutor’s office” of the Court of Turin, and decided “to adopt legitimate alternative accounting methodologies” regarding salary supplements. “These revisions to estimates and hiring therefore result in adjustments to the estimates of chargeable expenses” between 2020 and 2022, the effects of which are “significantly nil on cash flow and net financial debt, both for previous years and for the year ended and the years to come”points the club.
To these legal setbacks are added financial problems. For five seasons, the club from the north of the country has been in the red. Eliminated from the group stages of the Champions League last November, this premature exit will lead to a shortfall of some 20 million euros this year, underlines the Italian site Calcio e Finanza. Last season, the structure recorded a record deficit in Italian football of 255 million euros. The surprise resignation of the board of directors does not help matters. On Tuesday, the title of the football club Juventus Turin fell by almost 5% on the Milan Stock Exchange. Agnelli’s dreams of grandeur around a Super League, a private European competition project unveiled in April 2021 and torpedoed on all sides, seem far away.
For many observers, Juve’s current setbacks are reminiscent of the Calciopoli corruption scandal that occurred shortly before the World Cup in Germany in 2006. Condemned in this vast affair of referee purchases and relegated to the second division, Juventus de Turin had then been dispossessed of its last two titles and of its stars such as Patrick Vieira, Gianluca Zambrotta or even Fabio Cannavaro, who had left for other horizons. Before a Didier Deschamps arrives to coach the most successful team in Italy and return the following year in the elite.