At the end of November, in an event which was described as an “earthquake” by the Italian media,
Juventus suffered the most traumatic day in their history since the 2006 Calciopoli scandal.
What was it and what does it mean for the club’s future?
Just as the World
Cup was kicking-off in Qatar, a truly startling statement was released:
Andrea Agnelli, the chairman of Juventus, announced that he and his entire board were
resigning. Agnelli had spent 12 years at the helm of his family’s football club,
with no little success and no shortage of controversy. So, what happened?
Well, it revolves around the ongoing investigation into Juventus’ finances.
Late in 2021, they were engaged in a second capital increase in three years. Over the
course of both exercises, new shares were issued for a combined €700million
(£603m, $723m) to stabilise the club’s finances amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the prospectus regarding the recapitalisation, Juventus were obliged, as a company listed on the
Euronext stock exchange in Milan, to disclose that the club was subject to an inspection
by Italy’s financial regulator CONSOB over “revenues from players’ registration rights”.
COVISOC, another watchdog charged with supervising the football industry in Italy,
had passed on a report to the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) highlighting 62 transfers
from the previous two years. The FIGC’s disciplinary commissioner was invited to
take a closer look and consider whether the fees involved were inflated or not.
Forty-two of those transfers involved Juventus, the most
high-profile being the swap of Miralem Pjanic for Barcelona’s Arthur Melo. But 36 of the 62,
a startlingly high proportion, went under the radar because they pertained to young players.
In April 2022, the FIGC cleared Juventus and the other 10 implicated clubs,
the prosecutor’s case undermined by leaning on the widely-used but
unofficial football website Transfermarkt as a benchmark for player valuations.
Far more serious, though, was a parallel investigation called
Prisma that had been launched by the public prosecutor’s office of the court of Turin.
Prisma brought allegations of false accounting, false financial statements
and market manipulation. A search and seizure order was obtained by the public
prosecutor’s office in Turin and they authorised the Guardia di Finanza — a
police force responsible for investigating financial affairs in Italy — to raid the
club’s training grounds in Continassa and Vinovo and their offices in Turin and Milan.
Sixteen people were placed under investigation including Agnelli,
vice-president Pavel Nedved and Juventus’ former chief football officer Fabio Paratici,
who left 18 months ago and is now managing director of football at Premier League club
Tottenham Hotspur. A request to place Agnelli under house arrest was rejected.
The club issued a statement in October denying any wrongdoing,
after prosecutors completed their investigation.
Attention focused on Juventus’ financial results in 2019,
2020 and 2021. After looking over the books, investigators alleged a significant discrepancy.
Also of interest were the arrangements made with the club’s players during the pandemic.
A statement in March 2020 announced Juventus would approximately save €90million after
their players agreed a wage reduction equal to their pay for the months of March, April,
May and June that year. But the investigators allege the players waived only one month’s pay,
and that the financial markets were misled by the club’s statement.
The “salary manoeuvres”, loyalty bonuses and
how they were accounted for lay at the heart of Prisma.
Juventus have always maintained they operated in respect of the law and accounting principles
and in line with international football industry practice and market conditions.
Even so, the resignation of the board on November 28th,
was – it explained in its explanatory statement - ‘considered in the best interest of the company.’
But this isn’t Calciopoli 2.0.
It is a financial story about how a club listed on the stock exchange reported their financial
results. It’s about player trading and payroll and how the club reacted to financial pressures,
particularly around making transfers and, principally, the pandemic.
But what happens next?
If Prisma finds any breaches, the FIGC may reopen its case, or start a separate one in light of the
findings of the Prisma investigation. An appeal launched by the FIGC’s federal prosecutor’s
office in May against the acquittal of the 11 clubs involved, was rejected.
But if Giuseppe Chine, the FIGC’s federal prosecutor, believes there is merit in
revisiting the case based upon a review of the evidence gathered by the public
prosecutor’s office in Turin, Juventus could be at risk of a fine or a points penalty.
The Prisma investigation itself has now concluded and it remains to be seen how
the criminal proceedings pending before the Turin judicial authority progress — as
acknowledged in the first half-year report for 2022 by the Agnelli family’s holding company.
Within the club itself, chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene,
a former Ferrari team principal, is staying on for now to manage the transition.
Juventus have also announced Maurizio Scanavino as general manager. Scanavino previously led GEDI,
the media group and publisher behind leading Italian newspapers La Repubblica and La Stampa
as well as international titles including The Economist. GEDI is one of the companies in the
portfolio of EXOR, which is led by the real power and scion of the Agnelli dynasty, John Elkann,
who is Andrea Agnelli’s cousin.
Juventus are one of the companies on EXOR’s portfolio, a conglomerate with revenues worth
a colossal €33billion in 2021 and which also comprises Ferrari and Stellantis,
which makes Citreons, Peugeots, Opels and Vauxhalls. Elkann and EXOR are therefore
gold-standard guarantors. It was EXOR that underwrote the majority
of the two capital increases in Juventus, and they can afford it.
Juventus, of course, have to operate within an FFP framework and make a
transition to a more sustainable model. But that transition has already started.
The €400million injected into the club this time last year partly gave them the confidence
to go and sign Serbia forward Dusan Vlahovic from Fiorentina for €75million last January. He helped
Juventus qualify for the Champions League and while the club have exited after the group stage,
a run of six straight clean-sheet wins in Serie A, following a poor start,
meant they went into this World Cup break in third place and on course for another top-four finish.