Serie A giants Juventus have been hit with a 15 point deduction from their league tally by an Italian court. The club is forced to forfeit points after being found to have rigged finances related to transfer deals. The Italian Football Federation announced point deduction for financial irregularities and false accounting after the prosecutors reopened Plusvalenza case.
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The Plusvalenza case and Juventus
Plusvalenza is a term in Italian which translates as capital gains. COVISOC, a supervisory commission for Serie A investigated the Plusvalenza case along with FIGC. Around 62 deals were flagged to be potentially inflated transfers between 2018/19 to 2020/21 season. 42 out of 62 deals involved Juventus. Public prosecutors of Turin opened a criminal investigation in May 2021 with the findings of COVISOC. CONSOB, the government authority responsible for regulating stock exchange entered the fray and probed a dozen of transfer deals that were suspicious. According to Sky Sport Italia, documents related to shady transfers were worth €282m in capital gains.
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The club officials were acquitted in May 2022 after a lengthy investigation. Italian soccer federation announced last month that a federal prosecutor will appeal and re-take the case. The sanctions were announced for the Old Lady on January 20th. Juventus involved in such transfers to comply with FFP. In order to balance the sheets, they used these loopholes to increase capital gains. This is a common practice in football after introduction of FFP restrictions. Juventus is not the only club to do this, but this is an investigation from Italian government authorities and not football authorities. Old Lady is a publicly traded club and they are punished misleading share holders and engaging in illicit accounting practices.
15 point deduction for Juventus
Juventus are at 10th spot at the moment with 15 point deduction. The Old Lady can appeal the decision soon. This decision has come as a shocker for the Juventus camp as it dents their hope for league victory. A top four finish is also in jeopardy at the moment. There are rumours that Juventus might get a ban from UEFA in European competitions but nothing is official yet.
This is not the first time Juventus find themselves in a controversy. The club was guilty of a match fixing scandal in 2006 and they got penalised with relegation to Serie B. Juventus will have a tough time if this decision keeps them away from European competitions. Their financial situation will become worse and the players might leave. Allegri has a tough time to deal with as things stand.
