A motion to indict former Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli and ten other board members, including vice-chairman and former Czech footballer Pavel Nedvěd, for falsifying the club’s accounts was filed by Turin’s prosecutor’s office.
A date for a preliminary hearing to decide on possible indictments and the start of the trial is expected to be announced next week, according to the AP.
In addition to Agnelli and former Czech international Nedvěd, other officials facing the threat of charges include Juventus CEO Maurizio Arrivabene, who resigned on Monday along with other board members, and former club sporting director Fabio Paratici.
Italian authorities accused Juventus’ management of falsifying accounts last year, but all the officials were acquitted this April, Czech News Agency reported on Thursday. Since October, however, Nedvěd and 14 other officials have again faced investigations.
The Czech 2003 Ballon d’Or winner Nedvěd and other officials of the Turin outfit are suspected of taking illegal commissions from transfers of footballers and reporting false profits to investors between 2018 and 2020.
But Juventus denies any illegal behaviour. “The accounting procedures in the contested financial statements are in accordance with the applicable accounting principles,” club representatives have written in a statement. “Juventus remains convinced that it has always acted correctly and intends to defend its corporate, economic and sporting interests,” they added.
This is far from the first time Juventus has been implicated in financial scandals. In 2006, it lost two league titles and was relegated to the second division due to corruption.
(Ondřej Plevák | EURACTIV.cz)
Source: euractiv.com
