It’s the rock bottom of a legendary football giant.
The entire board of the Italian record champions Juventus Turin, including President Andrea Agnelli (46), has surprisingly resigned. The northern Italians announced this on Monday evening.
The Juve bosses reacted to the club’s financial difficulties, including public prosecutor’s investigations into possible accounting fraud.
Ex-professional and Vice President Pavel Nedved (50) also resigned. Maurizio Scanavino (50) was temporarily appointed as General Manager. “We are in a tricky situation for the club,” Agnelli wrote in an email to employees, quoted by the Ansa news agency.
Agnelli had led the club since 2010 and was responsible for one of the most successful eras at Juve. During that period, Turin won nine consecutive championships, four national cups and two Champions League finals. The club also moved to a new stadium under Andrea Agnelli, whose family has run Juventus for almost a century.
Recently, Juve got into violent turbulence. In September, the traditional club reported a record loss of 254.4 million euros for the previous season. Lower revenues and increased costs weighed on the club. Due to the ongoing consequences of the corona pandemic, Juve is also expecting a minus in the current year 2022/23.
The Italian stock exchange supervisory authority then intervened, and the public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the club for accounting fraud in 2018, 2019 and 2020. It is said to be about amounts of 115 million euros, which the club noted in the books from fictitious evaluations of its players .
16 defendants face trial, including Agnelli and Nedved. But also managing director Maurizio Arrivabene (65, in office since June 2021), who also announced his resignation, but will still accompany the transition until a new board is appointed.
(dpa, shu)