Napoli has already celebrated its third Scudetto, as the race for the Champions League continues. Juve won the direct clash with Atalanta by authority and flew to the second place alone and with an advantage of 2 points over Lazio and 3 on Inter. Allegri’s team still has to face Cremonese, Empoli, Milan and Udinese, but between the black and whites and qualification for the next Champions League there is now only the decision of the Federal Court of Appeals.
The hearing before the end of the championship
The Sports guarantee college has published, in 75 dense pages, the reasons for the sentence of the Juve trial on the “capital gains case” and so within 15 days that is the hearing can be held before the end of the 2022/23 championship before the Federal Court of Appeal for a new evaluation, with possible consequences also in relation to the penalty of -15 points imposed on the Juventus club.
The causal contribution of individual directors
On 20 April last, the College had ordered the cancellation with postponement for Juve – to which they have been points temporarily returned – and for some executives and directors without proxy and confirmed instead the sentences for the former president Andrea Agnellithe former CEO Maurizio Arrivabene, the former ds Fabio Paratici and Federico Cherubini, noting the existence of “systematic and repeated” incorrect behaviors, “the result of a preordained plan to alter transfer operations”, with “clear effects ..also on his loyal participation in sporting competitions”. The Panel substantially confirmed the accusatory system, starting from the recognized legitimacy of the reopening of the trial, then reiterating the sporting offense (the famous article 4) and emphasizing a preordained method of violating the rules: to be precise a “desired and repeated alteration of the accounting records as a result of numerous capital gains whose values were fictitious”.
The responsibilities of executives without delegation and the -9
The motivation is in the hands of the parties’ lawyers, who will have time for a couple of weeks to prepare the new judgment before the Court, which will have a different composition than the one that pronounced the judgment last January. The key point is the determination of the causal contribution of individual directors, not adequately motivated in the judgment of the Court. We need to redefine the responsibilities of executives without delegation. A sort of assist towards the return to -9. However, for the judges of the last level of sports justice, the responsibilities relating to “directors without Juventus powers” must be restructured with an effect that can also rebound on the extent of the penalty for the club.
A “limited” fine
“The Board has carried out a very in-depth analysis distinguishing the position of directors with operational powers from those without specific powers – explains the lawyer Cesare Di Cintio, specialized in sports law -. He rejected the appeals of the former, deeming the decision justified, but accepted those of the latter due to lack of motivation. This means – according to the lawyer – that their position will have to be examined by the Court, which may reach a ruling of guilty only if he is able to adequately justify his responsibility. All this – he concludes – leaves room for a different evaluation in terms of terms of the total penalty which could be contained compared to the contested decision”.
The autonomous decision of UEFA
It will therefore be necessary to wait a couple of weeks for the next act of a story that began over a year ago and which remains open to many solutions. At stake is Juve’s participation or not in European competitions, a theme on which, however, once once the process of Italian sports justice is complete, UEFA will also be able to have its say. The risk is to stay outside Europe at least one year. Overcome Sevilla in the semi-finals e winning the Europa League wouldn’t change anything for the Nyon judges, but it would be essential to avoid serving a possible disqualification in two years, thus lengthening purgatory.