Juventus in more legal trouble from probe into player salaries

ROME: Juventus are in more legal trouble after the Italian soccer federation on Friday charged the club and seven former team directors with alleged fraud for the way they handled player salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic. At the start of the pandemic, Juventus said 23 players agreed to reduce their salary for four months to help the club through the crisis.

But prosecutors claim the players gave up only one month’s salary. Former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, former vice president Pavel Nedved and former sports director Fabio Paratici are among those charged.

The charges will lead to another sports trial, after the federation already inflicted a 15-point penalty on Juventus this season for false accounting. The 15-point penalty was suspended last month on an appeal to the country’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee and referred back to the soccer federation’s appeals court for a new sentence.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Turin have also charged Juventus, Agnelli and 11 others with false communications by a company listed publicly on the Milan stock exchange, obstructing watchdog agencies, false billing and market manipulation. Juventus were eliminated from the Europa League semifinals by Sevilla on Thursday, leaving the club without any titles this season.