The entire Juventus board of directors resigned on Monday and its president Andrea Agnelli leaves the club after more than 12 years, Juve announced in a press release published in the evening.
Pavel Nedved, the vice-president and Maurizio Arrivabene the managing director are among the resigning members. This “earthquake”, described as such by the Italian media, follows the involvement of the “Grand Dame” in an investigation opened by the Turin public prosecutor’s office for false accounting, and the latest complaints from the Consob (the national commission companies and the stock market) responsible for regulating the market.
The approval of the budget had already been postponed as well as the shareholders’ meeting, now set for December 27, reports the Gazzetta dello Sport. Maurizio Scanavino has been appointed general manager.
In the immediate future Maurizio Arrivabene has been tasked with staying in place and expediting day-to-day business until a new council is formed, said the club, which adds in its press release that “the majority of the directors in office have ceased to serve. exist and, therefore, in accordance with the law and the articles of association, the Board of Directors must be considered dissolved. The Board will continue its activity under the prorogatio regime until the General Meeting convened on January 18, 2023 for the appointment of the new Board of Directors.”
Juventus has been targeted since November by an Italian judicial investigation into capital gains made between 2019 and 2021.
Italy’s most successful club is suspected of giving false information to investors and producing invoices for non-existent transactions, according to the Turin prosecutor’s office. Several of its leaders, including Andrea Agnelli, are directly targeted.
Many observers have been pointing out for years the abuse of a legal practice on the transfer market, aimed at carrying out “false exchanges” between two clubs, i.e. cross-sales of players, sometimes overvalued.
This makes it possible to limit the volume of money actually paid on both sides while allowing immediate recognition of any capital gains to boost financial performance.
Juve is also suspected of having concluded private salary agreements with certain footballers, which have not been communicated to investors. Several players have already been auditioned.
“It is better to leave together”
After 12 years at the head of the Italian club, Andrea Agnelli announced his departure in the wake of the resignation en bloc from the Juventus Board of Directors on Monday evening.
The now ex-president of Juventus spoke in a letter sent to all the employees of the Grande Dame who had to let slip the title in Serie A last season and extracts of which are published by the Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian sports daily.
“We are facing a delicate moment at the level of society and the cohesion is no longer there. It is better to leave all together by giving the possibility to a new team to turn the game around,” wrote Andrea Agnelli, 46, who underlines in his missive of “extraordinary results” including the Stadium, the nine Italian championship titles in a row, the five consecutive ones also among the ladies, also evoking the finals lost in the Champions League in Berlin (in 2015) and Cardiff ( in 2017), “our greatest regrets”, he underlines.
The Turin public prosecutor’s office is interested in the practice, which Juve has multiplied, of “false exchanges” of players: cross-sales with other clubs, without exchanging money but allowing capital gains to be recorded in the balance sheets.
The magistrates have calculated these “fictitious” capital gains at some 155 million euros between 2018 and 2021, according to the media.
The club, listed on the stock exchange, would also have hidden from its investors the existence of private agreements with players, including Portuguese star striker Cristiano Ronaldo, to settle certain deferred salaries.
The “Old Lady”, eliminated in the group stages of the Champions League, has been in the red for the past five years and had recorded 255 million euros in losses last season: a record deficit in Italian football.