MILAN, Jan 22, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Juventus are in deep turmoil after being hit
with a massive points deduction for what the Italian Football Federation
ruled was transfer trickery on the part of the country's biggest football
club.

Docked 15 points in Serie A, their sporting director Federico Cherubini
banned for 16 months and facing a potential criminal trial into alleged
accounting offences, Juve's season will now be dominated by off-field events.

Why were Juventus docked points?

-- Juve were found guilty of managing capital gains from transfers to
artificially benefit their balance sheet.

It was a charge of which they and other clubs including Serie A leaders
Napoli were cleared by the FIGC tribunal last year after it was ruled it was
impossible to pin down the objective value of a footballer.

However prosecutors at the country's football federation (FIGC) convinced the
governing body's tribunal to reopen the sporting trial on the basis of
evidence from a separate criminal investigation carried out in Turin.

The FIGC won't publish for another 10 days the tribunal's reasoning for a
points deduction which was even harsher than the nine requested by the
prosecution.

But Italian media widely report that the documents from the criminal probe
convinced the tribunal that there was systematic use of transfers to massage
the club's accounts.

More courtroom drama looms

-- Juve will appeal the FIGC's decision at the country's highest sporting
tribunal -- at the Italian Olympic Committee -- who within the next two
months will either uphold or throw out the sanctions handed down by the FIGC.

On March 27 a preliminary hearing will decide whether the club, which is
quoted on the Italian stock market, and its former leadership will face
criminal prosecution for a variety of accounting offences over the three
seasons between 2018 and 2021.

Reportedly in their early stages are two more FIGC investigations into Juve's
financial activity, one of which is into their alleged relationships with
other clubs in gaming capital gains.

The other probe is into claims Juve lied about their players giving up salary
payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, with criminal prosecutors saying the
club privately assured players they would only miss out on a portion of what
was publicly communicated.

Italian media report that Juve owe Cristiano Ronaldo nearly 20 million euros
as part of that agreement.

European football's governing body UEFA are also investigating whether
Juventus misled them in order to resolve breaches of Financial Fair Play
rules with a "settlement agreement" in August last year.

Everything changes

-- Coach Massimiliano Allegri may have put a brave face on during Saturday's
press conference ahead of their match with Atalanta, but his claim that
"nothing changes" rings hollow when looking at the Serie A table.

Before Friday's ruling Juve sat third in Italy's top flight and until last
weekend's five-goal destruction at leaders Napoli were considered potential
title contenders.

The points penalty is not yet formally reflected in the league table but Juve
were, as of Saturday night, de facto 28 points off the Scudetto pace and 12
away from the Champions League positions.

Juve could qualify for Europe's top club competition through the Europa
League but are also potentially facing the threat of exclusion from European
competition if UEFA find Juve guilty in their probe.

A bleak future?

-- Without Champions League football Juve could find it hard to keep players
like Adrien Rabiot and Angel Di Maria whose contracts expire in the summer,
and with their sporting director out of action renewals and transfers will be
that much more difficult to manage.

However Juve can count on the backing of colossal parent company EXOR
controlled by the powerful Agnelli family, who have already approved 700
million euros of capital increases in recent years to help a club whose most
recent accounts were nearly 240 million euros in the red.

A entire new board was appointed on Wednesday after former chairman Andrea
Agnelli -- who had presided over nine league title triumphs -- and the rest
of the previous leadership stepped down in November.

The new board is led by Gianluca Ferrero, who is trusted by EXOR chairman
John Elkann and has been charged with helping sort out Juve's accounts while
maintaining competitiveness on the field.

How successful Ferrero is will depend on how the club fares in a potential
myriad of legal battles over the next few turbulent months.