Bad setback for Juventus: removal from 10 points, one foot out of the Champions League and Di María’s imminent departure

A week to forget for Ángel Di María’s Juventus, Leandro Paredes and Matías Soulé. The elimination in the semifinals of the Europa League against Sevilla was added to the official this Monday the deduction of 10 points by the Italian Football Federation, which has a direct impact on their aspiration to qualify for the Champions League of the next season and distances the world champion ‘Fideo’ from the renewal optiontherefore his future is presumed far from Turin.

The Appeal Chamber of the Italian Sports Justice revised downwards the initial penalty of 15 points for false accounting, but was unable to let go of the inconsistencies, making Juventus pass from 69 to 59 units ranked, e from second to seventh placewhich would give the classification to the Conference League.

Thus, five points from 4th place (occupied by Milan), the last one that gives access to play the next edition of the Champions League with two dates to go. To make matters worse, he lost at half-time 2-0 on his visit to Empoli on Monday.

These ten penalty points must be deducted “in the current season”according to the ruling published by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).

The appeals court was a little more lenient than the attorney general, who had asked for a fine this Monday morning eleven points.

The most successful club in Italian football was sanctioned on 20 January with a reduction of fifteen points for having artificially reduced its losses by realizing capital gains deemed overstated in the sale of some players between 2018 and 2021.

In April, ‘Juve’ did not obtain the pure and simple annulment of the sanction, but convinced the judges of the College of Guarantees, the highest sports justice body in Italy and dependent on CONI, to refer the case to the FIGC’s court of appeal to “renew one’s appreciation”.

This school has confirmed “a voluntary and repeated alteration of accounting records” from Juventus, although the sanction was suspended until the individual responsibilities of some former managers, such as the former vice president, were clarified Pavel Nedvedwhich at this last hearing was acquitted.

Yes, in April the sanctions for three other executives were confirmed: two and a half years of suspension against the former DS Fabio Paraticiwho left Tottenham when he learned of the sanction, two years for the former president Andrea Agnelli and 16 months against the current sporting director, Federico Cherubini.

But the story is not over yet, how Juventus can still appeal the sentence againwith which the final decision could be known beyond the current season, which will end on June 4th.

Juventus press release

In a statement made public after learning of the decision, Juventus indicated so “I reserve the right” appeal to the Board of Guarantees.

The judicial problems for Juventus do not end in this case, since the FIGC has yet to decide whether to sanction the club with a fine or with the deduction of points for another alleged illegality: having deferred the payment of their players’ salaries during the covid pandemic, also with the aim of artificially reducing their losses in the annual budget.

The decision on this case, however, should not be known before next September.

These judicial processes led Agnelli to resign as Juventus president at the end of last November.

The future looks complicated for Juventus, since UEFA is also investigating him for “alleged accounting irregularities”, forcing the institution to undergo a financial recovery plan over three years to respect financial ‘fair-play’ .