Juventus concedes in millions – Newspaper Kommersant No. 241 (7442) of 12/27/2022

One of the most popular Italian football clubs, Juventus, is facing more and more manifestations of the managerial and financial crisis in which he fell. On Tuesday, the meeting of shareholders of the club must approve the depressing financial results of the team. Its losses for the 2021/22 season amounted to a record €239.3 million. All this against the backdrop of a criminal case of financial fraud, because of which the entire board of directors of Juventus, including club president Andrea Agnelli, was forced to resign.

On December 27, the meeting of Juventus shareholders must approve the financial results of the club’s activities for the 2021/22 season. Shareholders, they, apparently, will not please. According to AFP, Juventus’ losses for the above period amounted to, according to updated data, € 239.3 million. This figure is significantly less than the € 254 million predicted back in October, but still is a record in the history of Juventus. We also note that the decrease in losses for the 2021/22 season in the adjusted financial statements may be due to the fact that part of the losses was carried over to the 2020/21 season. Indeed, during that season, losses, again according to updated reports, increased from €209 million to €226 million. However, there is nothing sensational about the fact that Juventus ends the seasons with financial losses. This has been happening to the club for the past five years. Another thing is that this time the problems with finances were supplemented by difficulties with the law.

At the end of October, the entire board of directors of Juventus resigned. This happened after the prosecutor of Turin, Anna Maria Loretto, notified the board of directors of Juventus that the department she headed had completed an investigation, in which 15 high-ranking employees of the club immediately became involved. Among them were the president of Juventus, Andrea Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedved, the general director of the club Maurizio Arrivabene (all of them eventually resigned). The claims of the Italian authorities arose after studying the club’s accounts for 2018, 2019 and 2020. The prosecutor’s office considered that the residents of Turin during this period falsified financial statements. The audit revealed a significant gap between the real income of the club and those that were recorded in the documents. In particular, Juventus is suspected of deliberately overestimating the transfer value of players (not real, but the one that was reflected in the reports), which, according to the prosecutor’s office, caused damage to the club’s shareholders: Juventus shares are traded on the Milan Stock Exchange. In addition, the club is accused of misleading shareholders by claiming to have reached an agreement with players to reduce wages at the start of the acute phase of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. The prosecutor’s office got access to the agreements with the players, according to which they were delayed only one monthly payment. At the same time, agreements were signed that the players in any case, even if they change the club, will receive the money due to them under the original contract. In total, the amount of additions, according to the investigation, amounted to € 155 million. As an illustration of how things were done at Juventus, the story of Christian Romero’s transfers is given. In 2019, the Argentine was bought by Juventus for €26 million from Genoa and immediately loaned back to the Genoese. He spent the next season on loan at Atalanta. In August 2021, Juventus sold the rights to Romero to Atalanta for €16 million, and the latter immediately resold him to Tottenham for €55 million. It turns out that Romero never played a single match for Juventus and brought losses of € 10 million. What prevented Juventus from selling it to Tottenham itself will be clarified during the investigation.

It should be noted that the actions of the Juventus leadership, if they caused damage to someone, then to the minority shareholders of the club, who do not have control over the affairs of the team. After all, almost 64% of the club’s shares belong to the Exor holding, controlled by the Agnelli family. Exor appeared to be aware of the cost overruns at Juventus. The authorities have information that the parent company has poured €700 million into the club since 2018. It is noted that active investments in Juventus began shortly after Turin bought Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo from Real for about €112 million. which required a significant increase in the salary fund.

Apparently, it is precisely with attempts to solve the financial problems of Juventus that Andrea Agnelli was one of the most consistent, along with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, supporters of the creation of a Super League that was not controlled by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which actually replaced the Champions League . The scandalous Superleague project started in the spring of 2020. Then 12 European top clubs – English Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, Spanish Atletico, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Italian Inter “And” Milan “,” Juventus “- announced the creation of a tournament not controlled by UEFA. True, it lasted a little more than a day and actually collapsed after all the English teams left it, unable to cope with the pressure. Atlético Madrid, Inter and AC Milan followed suit. Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona have not abandoned the Superleague project, which are currently suing both UEFA and the International Football Federation (FIFA) that supported its position. True, things are not going well on this front either. Two weeks ago, Athanasios Rantos, Senior Legal Adviser of the European Court of Justice, issued an opinion on the Superleague case. It states that UEFA and FIFA have the right to sanction clubs that play in third-party competitions without proper permission. In this, Mr. Rantos believes, there is no contradiction to the EU antimonopoly rules, in violation of which the Superleague accuses UEFA and FIFA. The opinion of Athanasios Rantos is not legally binding on the court, whose verdict is not expected until next year. But, as practice shows, the court in most cases takes into account the position of a legal adviser.

The development of events around the scandalous story with Juventus will not be expected long. Already in January, a preliminary court session should take place, at which the question of whether there are grounds for a full-fledged process will be decided. Judging by the information collected by the investigation and the collective resignation of the Juventus board of directors, the claims of the authorities are not unfounded.

We add that the difficulties that the club faces on the legal field are reflected in its affairs on the football field. In the Italian championship, Juventus is third. After 15 rounds, Turintsy are already 10 points behind leaders Napoli.

Alexander Petrov