April 21 – Juventus’ 15-point penalty for alleged false accounting in transfer dealings was revoked on Thursday but the spectre of sanction did not disappear after Italy’s highest sporting court ruled that the case should be re-examined and the long bans meted out to former chairman Andrea Agnelli, ex-CEO Maurizio Arrivabene and sporting directors Federico Cherubini and Fabio Paratici were upheld.
Partially accepting the Juventus appeal, the Sports Guarantee Board ruled that a court made up of different judges should now hold new proceedings.
The Sports Guarantee Board has a month to publish the reasoning behind its ruling. Only then can the case be re-assessed, meaning the affair will likely drag on until the end of the season.
In the meantime the decision moves Juve up from seventh in Serie A to third on 59 points and right into the mix for Champions League places while they await a new ruling.
In January, Juve were found guilty of having “systematically altered accounting documents… from at least the quarter ending March 31, 2019 to the quarter ending March 31, 2021”.
Agnelli and Arrivabene were both hit with two-year bans, while Cherubini was banned for 16 months. Paratici, who by the time of January’s ruling had left Juve and had become managing director at Tottenham Hotspur, was banned for two-and-a-half years from working in Italian football.
Juventus denied all wrongdoing and appealed to Italy’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee, known as CONI.
Nevertheless Agnelli and the rest of the Juve board stepped down under pressure in November following an investigation by Turin public prosecutors into alleged false bookkeeping.
Juventus Chief Football Officer Francesco Calvo said the club welcomed the decision’s effect on the Serie A table as it provided a degree of certainty to Juventus and the other sides battling for a spot in next year’s European Champions League.
“As of today, we finally have certainty and we expect that the points that have been given back to us will remain with us forever,” Calvo said.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1715054353labto1715054353ofdlr1715054353owedi1715054353sni@w1715054353ahsra1715054353w.wer1715054353dna1715054353