ROME (AP) — Italy’s most storied soccer club, Juventus, was hit with a massive 15-point penalty for false accounting Friday following an appeal hearing at the Italian soccer federation.
The punishment could eliminate the club’s chances of playing in Europe next season. A record 36-time Italian champion, Juventus was third in Serie A and the penalty drops the Bianconeri to a midtable position — 25 points behind leader Napoli and 12 points from the Champions League places.
Juventus said it will appeal the decision to Italy’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee.
Also, former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and former club CEO Maurizio Arrivabene were each banned for two years from soccer activities and more bans were handed out for nine other members of Juve’s staff or former board, which resigned en masse in November following an investigation by Turin public prosecutors into alleged false bookkeeping.
The longest ban of 2 ½ years was handed out to former Juventus sporting director and current Tottenham managing director Fabio Paratici, while current Juventus sporting director Federico Cherubini was given 16 months and former Juventus player turned board member Pavel Nedved was given eight months.
The bans prohibit those individuals from engaging in soccer activities in Italy, “with the request that the ban be extended to UEFA and FIFA activities.”
Juventus has denied wrongdoing and was initially cleared by the sports court in April. But an appeal was made after the federation collected papers from the Turin prosecutors.
Federation prosecutor Giuseppe Chiné had requested a nine-point penalty for Juventus earlier Friday.
Gianluca Ferrero was appointed Juventus’ new president on Wednesday, presiding over a smaller five-person board of directors. Also Wednesday, Agnelli announced that he was stepping down from all of his positions within the family businesses, including carmaker Stellantis, which controls FIAT, as well as the Exor holding company.
Agnelli was also one of the architects of the failed European Super League project.
The penalty comes 17 years after the “Calciopoli” refereeing scandal that saw Juventus demoted to Serie B and stripped of two Serie A titles.