Italian police seize documents in Juventus accounting probe -source

MILAN : Italian tax police have seized documents as part of a Turin prosecutors probe of allegations of false accounting at Italian Serie A football club Juventus, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The documents were seized during police searches on Wednesday in the Turin, Milan and Rome offices of legal firms and agents that advised players on the terms of their pay packages in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 football seasons, the source said.

Juventus declined to comment.

The club, owned by the Agnelli family, has said in the past that it has always acted in compliance with the law and was fully collaborating with the authorities.

Turin-based Juventus disclosed in an investor document in December, when it was preparing to raise 400 million euros in equity, that prosecutors were looking into its financial accounting and also examining the terms of the sale of player Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United.

Widening the probe into alleged false accounting, prosecutors are now checking whether Juventus' financial statements were inaccurate because the club booked reductions in players' compensation which it knew would be offset later by higher pay based on its agreements with players.

Shares in the club were down 1.6per cent as of 0824 GMT, against a 0.3per cent rise in Italy's All-Share index.

(Reporting by Emilio Parodi; Additional reporting by Elvira Pollina; Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Hugh Lawson)