La Liga has called for UEFA to place “immediate sports sanctions” on Juventus following the resignation of the board of directors yesterday. The club are under investigation from the Turin public prosecutors office for “salary maneuvers” specifically related to the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.
A statement from the official La Liga website read:
“Following the resignation of the Juventus board of directors, LaLiga demands immediate sports sanctions be applied on the club.
LaLiga filed an official complaint against Juventus with UEFA in April 2022 reporting financial fair play breaches being investigated by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza, an enforcement agency under the authority of the country’s Minister of Economy and Finance, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Turin.
Specifically, this complaint charges that Juventus accounted for transfers above fair value and under-accounted for employee expenses, resulting in a breach of UEFA break-even requirements. Additionally, the complaint charges that Juve concealed the true wage bill of its players.
This Monday, in the same statement announcing the resignation of its board of directors, Juve acknowledge financial accounting irregularities, which are also aimed at misleading UEFA financial fair play authorities, among others.
As part of its campaign to promote financially sustainable football in Europe, LaLiga continues to pursue these complaints against Juventus and demands immediate sporting sanctions to be applied on the club by the relevant authorities.
LaLiga has long been a major proponent for the implementation, application, and enforcement of strong financial sustainability rules in football.
The Spanish competition itself has applied its ‘economic control’ rules for nearly a decade, at the request of the clubs that make up the league.
Financial sustainability is paramount to protecting the business of football.
Furthermore, the Board of Directors’ members, given the centrality and the relevance of the pending legal and technical/accounting matters, considered in the best interest of the Company that Juventus provided itself with a new Board of Directors to address these matters.
For this purpose, upon proposal of the Chairman Andrea Agnelli and in order to allow the decision on the renewal of the Board to be submitted to the Shareholders’ Meeting as soon as possible, all the members of the Board of Directors present at the meeting declared to forego their office.
For the same reasons, each of the three directors with powers (the Chairman of the Board of Directors Andrea Agnelli, the Vice Chairman Pavel Nedved and the Chief Executive Officer Maurizio Arrivabene) has considered appropriate to forego the powers granted to them.”
