Juventus accused of false accounting by Italian prosecutors | UEFA kick Juve out of Conference League

mazhar13

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You'd think that UEFA will surely get involved to enforce their FFP as they did with City after their leaks a while back. Hiding over €200m of losses over 3 years is massive, and since they're listed on an exchange, that'll probably get them in huge legal trouble as well if they lose this case.
 

rimaldo

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how fecking dare those prosecutors. pjanic is worth £150m all day long.
 

mazhar13

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Juventus's official statement soon after the accusations:
It is useful to remember that the issue of capital gains for so-called exchange transactions is the one from which the entire investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office, which ended yesterday, started. Well, this is an issue that does not record anything new today, and with respect to which two sentences of sports justice have already recognised the full accounting regularity of the Company, which acted in full consistency with the practice of the football industry.

As for the salary reduction and integration agreements, these are good corporate governance initiatives adopted in the emergency context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the suspension of football competitions and the closure of stadiums. The Company, in a press release of 28 March 2020, announced, in full transparency to the market and shareholders, a reduction in salaries agreed with the players, pointing out that any additional compensation would be negotiated and paid if and when sporting competitions resumed and stadiums were reopened. This exceptional situation of emergency and uncertainty lasted, as is well known, from the 2019/20 football season until the entire 2020/21 season, since it was only in the spring of 2022 that the stadiums were fully reopened to the public. The Company has therefore accounted for the changes in salaries and additions to remuneration in line with their progressive definition and in compliance with the reference accounting regulations.

As regards the general accusation of falsifying the financial statements and making improper communications to the market, Juventus and its representatives believe they have operated in observance of the law and the relevant technical-accounting principles. Moreover, during the years of interest, Juventus has distinguished itself for having carried out two different capital increases in full transparency and respecting regulations to the letter. These extraordinary operations have confirmed the solidity of the Company in the Italian football scene. In particular, the second capital increase, initiated independently by the Company in June 2021, i.e. a few months before the news of the investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office, was aimed at strengthening the Company's assets following the strong impact of the pandemic. The amounts of these capital increases exceed and largely absorb the numbers of the formal objections of this investigation, which in any case would have no effect on the Company's indebtedness.
Source:
 

Catt

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Surprising. Thought they had learned their lesson.
 

Skills

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It's like they purposefully do something stupid to throw the two clubs in Milan a bone for a few years, then they comeback and destroy them for the next 10 years.
 

HTG

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Always the ones you expect most.
 

AltiUn

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It's always the ones you most expect.
 

Bepi

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Misleading title, misleading post, usual sh*tstorm, noone excusing later?
 

mazhar13

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Misleading title, misleading post, usual sh*tstorm, noone excusing later?
Fair, the title was somewhat misleading, so I've amended that. However, I'd like to know more about what's misleading about the rest. The initial investigation was based on incorrect valuations of the players being traded/loaned around. Napoli was also under the spotlight for their Osimhen transfer in particular, and I don't think they're out of it yet. You'd also think that such a huge discrepancy in the accounting numbers would attract UEFA regardless, no? They investigated City as well for similar issues despite City denying the leaks otherwise.
 

Bole Top

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they can do whatever they want tbf, they're one of the traditional clubs so everything is forgiven.
 

mazhar13

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Prosecutors have closed their work and asked for a trial, defense teams have 20 days to communicate their counters, then the tribunal will decide to agree a trial or not.

Edit: @mazhar13
Got it. I was hoping for some extra insights that I may have missed out on, but this is okay, too. I think the main point of contention is the player valuation that is set up in these deals, and because this is quite subjective on its own, I do wonder how far the prosecution can really go. Spain dealt with this by setting up an independent committee that evaluates each player's economic value themselves with their own formulas. I wonder if Italy will eventually go in that direction, too, in order to deal with these sort of cases.
 

InfiniteBoredom

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As much as I don’t have an issue with peole dunking on Juve, didn’t we have a thread covering this investigation not that long ago?
 

mazhar13

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As much as I don’t have an issue with peole dunking on Juve, didn’t we have a thread covering this investigation not that long ago?
Yeah, there was a thread last year about an investigation on this. However, we now have a result, so I decided to make a new thread about it as the old one basically died out a year ago.
 

Dumbstar

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Just delay the trial for five years... Feck it, why even bother doing that. It's just FFP. No one gives a shit anymore.
 

Wrecking ralf

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Just ask city to borrow their lawyers. They’ll get away with a 10k fine and a thorough finger wagging.
 

Bepi

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Yeah, there was a thread last year about an investigation on this. However, we now have a result, so I decided to make a new thread about it as the old one basically died out a year ago.

Got it. I was hoping for some extra insights that I may have missed out on, but this is okay, too. I think the main point of contention is the player valuation that is set up in these deals, and because this is quite subjective on its own, I do wonder how far the prosecution can really go. Spain dealt with this by setting up an independent committee that evaluates each player's economic value themselves with their own formulas. I wonder if Italy will eventually go in that direction, too, in order to deal with these sort of cases.
This FIGC acquittal was from mid April https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/it...nsfer-trickery-trial-20220415-CMS-380075.html

“Some of Italian football’s top figures could breath a sigh of relief on Friday after the country’s football federation acquited everyone brought to its tribunal over suspicious transfer dealings.”


… and now the civil prosecutors are closing their own work for the balance sheets approved and communicated to Borsa Italiana.
 

Suedesi

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Juventus's official statement soon after the accusations:


Source:
The relevant sentence: "Juventus remains convinced, also taking into account the in-depth legal and accounting investigations carried out by the Company with the help of its consultants and the legal and technical accounting opinions acquired by the Company, that it has acted in compliance with the laws and regulations governing the preparation of financial reports, in accordance with the applicable accounting principles and related application criteria and in line with international practice in the football industry."
 

mazhar13

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This FIGC acquittal was from mid April https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/it...nsfer-trickery-trial-20220415-CMS-380075.html

“Some of Italian football’s top figures could breath a sigh of relief on Friday after the country’s football federation acquited everyone brought to its tribunal over suspicious transfer dealings.”


… and now the civil prosecutors are closing their own work for the balance sheets approved and communicated to Borsa Italiana.
Okay, that's good news for the clubs. They won't suffer any sporting consequences in that case.

However, in the legal realm, wouldn't the courts potentially be more stringent on the valuations, especially since Juventus are listed on the stock exchange? I'm trying to think of ways that this case can be thrown out, and the only thing I can think of is the subjective nature of the valuations. Maybe the prosecutors don't have enough substantial evidence to win this case.