Caught up by old stories? A year and a half after leaving Juventus Turin, Cristiano Ronaldo, now in Saudi Arabia at 37, could be worried about his Italian past. While the transalpine club suffered a withdrawal of 15 points because of false capital gains on the transfer market, several English and Spanish media report that the transfers of 22 players would now be in the sights of Italian justice. Among these players are the brand new Al-Nassr striker, Cristiano Ronaldo, but also Paulo Dybala and Giorgio Chiellini. All are suspected of having been accomplices in another financial fraud which allegedly involved salary deferrals.
He faces a one-month suspension.
During the period of Covid-19, in the spring of 2020, the leaders of Turin indeed negotiated a deferred payment of the salaries of their players. At the time, the club, then led by Agnelli, had chosen to postpone part of the sums planned for the players. Nothing had been clearly written in this sense, suggesting rather that the members of the workforce would give up several months of salary. But the players would have finally received money, without it being declared.
Justice recovered elements including a WhatsApp conversation from the locker room, where defender Giorgio Chiellini asked his teammates not to communicate on the subject because the club was listed on the stock exchange. The alleged accounting frauds would have made it possible to artificially limit the losses in the balance sheets presented to investors between 2018 and 2021.
The guilt of Cristiano Ronaldo and the other players is unproven at this time. But if it turns out that the Portuguese and his teammates were aware of this scheme, a 30-day suspension could be imposed on them. This sanction could apply to players now playing abroad, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who is about to play his second official match this Thursday in the Saudi Super Cup.