«The new fact that was not previously known is precisely the unveiling of the intentionality underlying the alteration of the transfer operations and the relative values». It is one of the key passages of the 36 pages of reasons with which the Federal Court of Appeal of the FIGC has decided to penalize Juventus by 15 points in the standings in the process on the capital gains of players. “The new fact – as was effectively underlined by the federal prosecutor – is the absence of any method of evaluating exchange operations and, instead, the presence of a fraudulent system from the outset (at least on the sporting level)”.
The sanction imposed on Juventus “must take into account the particular gravity and the repeated and prolonged nature of the violation that the evidence that emerged is able to demonstrate”, reads the reasons for the sentence of the trial on the so-called “fictitious capital gains”. Motivations through which, on 20 January last, the Federal Court of Appeal sanctioned Juventus with 15 penalty points to be served in the current football season and with a series of inhibitions for 11 Juventus managers.
The federal judges, explaining the reasons that led to quantifying the sanction imposed, underlined several times by Juventus «the repeated nature, over several financial years, of the behavior censured and, therefore, the relative effective classification as systematic» and «the relevance of the behavior on the repeated violation of the principles of truth and correctness of the financial statements affected by the operations described above”. According to the Federal Court, therefore, “a factual picture emerged, demonstrated by the numerous statements (deriving from wiretaps), by documents and manuscripts originating within FC Juventus and which all have an essentially confessional nature”.
On the part of the black and white club, the Court writes, «we came to systematically program the realization of capital gains regardless of the very identification of the subject to be exchanged, often indicated with a simple “X” next to the name of the FC Juventus player to be sold and obviously alongside the pre-established number of capital gains to be achieved». All this, therefore, in a framework «clearly symptomatic of an artificial search for artificial capital gains, in no way a consequence of actual market operations».
For the judges, «the pervasiveness at every level of the awareness of the artificiality of the modus operandi of the company itself is striking. From the sports director at the time (Paratici) to the then manager of his immediate collaborator (Cherubini). From the chairman of the board of directors (Agnelli) to the entire board itself (cited as aware by Agnelli himself). Still up to the reference shareholder and the managing director (Arrivabene) and still passing through all the main executives, including those with financial and legal expertise».