By Paul Nicholson
April 23 – Juventus boss Andrea Agnelli, a key leadership figure in the failed European Super League breakaway, has allegedly deferred his players’ salaries, according to a well-informed Insideworldfootball source.
Agnelli called his players to an off-campus meeting – before the European Super League (ESL) clubs made their announcement – telling them that they would not be paid until the summer, but that they would be paid and that they would receive a bonus.
That bonus would have been paid from new European Super League money. For Agnelli the ESL would have been his ‘get-out-of-jail’ card financially, as the founder member clubs would have received €320 million each, though reports are that Real Madrid and Barcelona would have received a further €50 million+ on top of that.
Agnelli was behind the precipitous announcement of a week last Sunday. Reliable sources from within the ‘Dirty Dozen’ of ESL clubs say that “Agnelli was pushing hard for an announcement last Sunday because of the UEFA ExCo meeting the next day and the UEFA Congress on Tuesday. He insisted that the 12 Clubs had to announce on Sunday or they would be too late.” Agnelli was apparently a late-comer to the ESL table which had been set by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and his trusted investment bankers.
“Given the rush there was no proper structure, no spokesperson, no nothing in place; the English clubs were reluctant to push ahead”, the Insideworldfootball source said.
“People who are playing the ‘look I’m a virgin’ – card now, have dirty fingers. They seem to forget that all documents were watermarked with their names on it, hence leaks are easy to identify”.
Agnelli reportedly missed a Serie A meeting at the weekend at which the ESL was discussed. Italian reports are that he could face legal action from other Serie A clubs over the collapse of a €1.2 billion deal for the league’s commercial rights with venture capitalists CVC Capital Partners. CVC had wanted to include a clause that would prevent Serie A clubs from backing any other European competition that would have decreased the value of Serie A. Non agreement to that clause became a deal breaker.
Not the first wage cut
It is not the first time Agnelli has forced wage cuts on his players. Last season, when the pandemic first struck, he reached a wage cut agreement with the First Team players and manager for a reduction of their 2019/2020 season wages. The club said at the time that the saving “equates to the monthly salaries of March, April, May and June 2020”, a saving on staff costs of about €90 million.
Juventus still posted a deficit of €71.4 million for the year ending 30 June 2020. Revenues dropped for the 2019/2020 season to €573.4 million, from €621.4 million the previous year.
Juventus have been Italy’s Serie A champions for the last nine consecutive seasons but are very unlikely to keep the run for a 10thtitle, currently lying in fourth spot in the table with five games to play but 13 points behind league leaders Inter Milan.
Their qualification for the group stages of next season’s Champions League is not guaranteed either, with just two points separating AC Milan, Atalanta, Juventus with Napoli three points but a game in hand behind Juve. Assuming Inter win the league, the other four are battling for the three group places left.
Agnelli is presumably not short of money personally as he is backed by the family stake in motor manufacturer FIAT. But reports are that the family are becoming increasingly frustrated by his financial and political blunders and the huge amounts of money being lost on the club.
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