Juve wait for appeal decision in ‘false accounting’ case

April 20 – Juventus are expected to find out later today whether their appeal against a 15-point penalty for false accounting in transfer dealings has been successful.

Italy’s highest sports court adjourned on Wednesday evening after a three-hour hearing without announcing a decision, although local reports suggest the club will be given the points back pending another trial.

That would lift Juventus from seventh to third in Serie A and right in the mix for a spot in next season’s Champions League.

Prosecutors have asked for the matter to be sent to a different court for a new trial, which would see Juventus handed the points back at least temporarily. Juventus wants the case thrown out completely.

Italy’s most successful club was hit with the huge penalty in January when 11 past and present directors were also banned from holding office in Italian football, including former president Andrea Agnelli.

The entire Juventus board had already resigned en masse in November following an investigation by Turin public prosecutors into alleged false bookkeeping.

Juventus denied any wrongdoing and appealed to Italy’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee, known as CONI.

Juventus’s lawyer Maurizio Bellacosa said January’s sentence was “full of mistakes” and that it had to be cancelled.

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