Juventus fined, to avoid points deduction in false wages trial
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The plea deal, which Juventus had requested, brings to an end a series of cases in Italy's sporting courts involving the club.
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Juventus flags (Reuters)
Italian football giants Juventus escaped an additional Serie A points deduction but agreed to pay a fine of more than 700,000 euros ($751,000) for presenting false reports about players' wages during the Covid-19 pandemic after a plea bargain approved Tuesday by the Italian Football Federation panel.
The plea deal, which Juventus had requested, brings to an end a series of cases in Italy's sporting courts involving the club.
Last week, Juventus were given a 10-point deduction in Serie A after a revision of their initial 15-point penalty imposed on the club over unlawful transfer activity.
As part of Tuesday's deal, Juventus have agreed not to appeal that penalty.
The disciplinary panel of the Italian football federation (FIGC) confirmed in a published decision that it had fined the club 718,240 euros, while seven of its management figures were ordered to pay fines ranging from 47,000 euros to 10,000 euros.
Excluded from the plea agreement is former chairman Andrea Agnelli, who jointly requested along with prosecutors that his hearing be postponed to June 15, given what the panel called "advanced talks" on potential sanctions.
Owned by the Agnelli family, the La Stampa newspaper wrote on Tuesday that the club had accepted the deal to avoid another points deduction, which could have pushed it further away from the European places in Serie A.
Juventus are seventh in Serie A with one game of the season remaining, after the 10-point deduction.
If they hold that position on the final day, they will qualify for next season's Europa Conference League, but they still have a chance of finishing as high as fifth and qualifying for the Europa League.
Juve faces separate criminal proceedings in the affair, with 12 current and former key club figures including former chairman Agnelli potentially facing trial.
The plea bargain agreed Tuesday relates to the Turin club having reported that players were giving up salary payments during the pandemic in 2020, while privately assuring those players that they would only miss out on a portion of what was publicly announced.
Agnelli, his ex-deputy chairman Pavel Nedved, and the rest of the club's board resigned in November following the probe by Italian authorities into the accounting irregularities.
In its decision, the panel ordered that the individual "F.P." would be fined 47,000 euros, and "P.N." 35,250 euros -- referring to Juve's former sporting director Fabio Paratici, and Nedved, respectively.
A 15-point penalty imposed by the FIGC's appeals court in January against Juve for overstating capital gains on player sales was revoked in April by Italy's highest sporting court, the Sports Guarantee Board.
It was then revised to 10 points by the federation's appeals court on May 22.
In January, the federation imposed on Agnelli and ex-CEO Maurizio Arrivabene a two-year ban and handed sporting director Federico Cherubini a 16-month ban.
Former sporting director Paratici, who had left Juve for Tottenham Hotspur, was banned for two-and-a-half years -- a decision that was extended worldwide by FIFA in March.
Juve icon Nedved, originally banned for eight months, was acquitted by the appeals court in May.
