Not long ago, Juventus were an unstoppable force in Italy and one of the mightiest teams in Europe. For nearly a decade, they reigned in the Serie A while they pushed for UEFA Champions League glory.
However, it feels like those days are far behind them, although it hasn't been that long really. Following a disappointing 2020-21 campaign, things haven't improved for them in the current season. And they could get even worse.
History could be repeating itself as Juventus are at risk of being relegated to Serie B and having Scudetto titles revoked as a result of a criminal investigation. Financial Italian authorities are investigating the club over possible false accounting.
Juventus could drop to Serie B and have Scudettos revoked amid financial investigation
Juventus are under investigation by Consob, the Italian finance police, over false accounting. The Italian club is suspected to have inflated players transfer values over the last few years to show capital gains and comply with the Financial Fair Play.
Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Consob is investigating six people, including Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedved, and Football Director Fabio Paratici.
Marco Donzelli, President of the Italian association for the protection of consumer rights (Codacons), claimed Juventus could face relegation to Serie B and have Serie A titles revoked should the illegal practices they're accused of turn out to be true.
“If Juventus were to have illegitimately gained an advantage over rival clubs with operations of this type, then the regularity of the last football championships would fail and, as a consequence, the Federation and the Authority for market competition will have to intervene and sanction those responsible," Donzelli said, per Football Italia.
“Beyond individual responsibilities, the club will not be exempt from punishment. For this reason and to protect thousands of fans, we will present a complaint to the Antitrust and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office asking for the relegation to Serie B for Juventus and the revocation of the last league titles won in the shadow of these potentially illegal operations.”
Juventus have released a statement regarding this investigation, saying they're cooperating with the investigators and with Consob and "trusts that it will clarify any aspect of interest to it as it believes to have acted in compliance with the laws and regulations governing the preparation of financial reports, in accordance with accounting principles and in line with the international practice in the football industry and market conditions.”
Why are Juventus under investigation?
Juventus are suspect of having inflated players transfer valuations in order to justify profits and avoid problems with the Financial Fair Play regulations, so that they could spend without being on their radar.
The fact that the transfers of many young or unknown players were registered with massive figures that were far higher than their actual valuations has raised eyebrows and led to the investigation.
ESPN reported that the Italian finance police has searched Juventus' offices in Turin and Milan to look for documents related to the transfers of Juventus players between 2019 and 2021.
Other Serie A clubs are also on the radar of the local financial authorities over this kind of illegal practices. It remains to be seen how this situation unfolds, but at worst, it could end up with Juve in the second tier and losing trophies.
