Juventus board resigns over financial irregularities

The entire board of directors at Juventus has resigned, including president Andrea Agnelli and vice-president Pavel Nedved.

The Italian Serie A club’s board stepped down en masse “having considered the centrality and relevance of pending legal and accounting issues”, it said in a reference to an ongoing police investigation.

Prosecutors in Turin have since last year been exploring allegations of false accounting and irregularities in the transfer and loans of players.

The outgoing board “considered [it] to be in the best social interest to recommend that Juventus equip itself with a new Board of Directors to address these issues,” a club statement read.

The managing director, Maurizio Arrivabene, was asked to stay on for an interim period while a new board is brought together, the club said, adding that the next shareholders’ meeting would be on December 27.

Juve are being probed over 282 million euros ($319 million) of capital gains — the positive difference between purchase and sale values net of amortisation and write-downs — from a series of player transfers booked in their financial results for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Prosecutors in Turin are investigating the possibility that Juve, who are listed on the Italian stock exchange, presented false accounting information to investors and produced invoices for non-existent transactions over that period.

A raft of transfers involving Juve and other clubs are also the subject of a parallel investigation which was launched by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in October.

What is discovered by prosecutors will then be passed on to the FIGC, which has powers to sanction clubs with a range of punishments from fines to being kicked out of the league.

The club would “continue to cooperate with supervisory and sector authorities”, it said.