Football: Juventus, old woman with scandals

The old woman and her old torments. The Piedmontese club in a white and black tunic has recently witnessed the emergence of the dark ghosts of its history. On Friday, Juventus Turin received 15 penalty points in the league for a dubious transfer case. A sanction that reminds us that the legal environment is never far from the sporting aspect in Piedmont.

1996: Dope

Since the second half of the 1990s, Juventus has been surrounded by dirty business. In a documentary released in 2004, the Dutch channel NOS claims that, according to two Italian scientists, Giuseppe d’Onofrio and Alessandro Donati, the players who played in the 1996 European final against Ajax Amsterdam were doped with EPO.

At that time, Juventus was in European football. Between 1995 and 1998, she won three Italian titles, the Champions League (1996), two C1 finals, two Italian Supercups, an Intercontinental Cup and a European Super Cup. Then the dominance of the Bianconeri becomes almost total, and therefore it is necessary to wait almost a decade until the revelations appear in the media.

In 2004, several searches led to a lawsuit that sentenced Old Lady’s physician Riccardo Agricola at first instance to one year and ten months in prison for sports fraud and taking dangerous drugs. But some time later, an appellate court finally acquitted him on the grounds that, at the time, the sports cheating law did not include doping. In cassation, limitation is recognized.

2004–2005: Fraud

The following year, Juventus again found themselves embroiled in a scandal, this time a financial one. The Calciopoli case is born. After the disclosure in the press of the fact of wiretapping between the general manager of the Turin club Luciano Moggi and representatives of the Serie A arbitration, fraud attempts were revealed. In addition to Juventus, Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Regina Calcio participate in the tournament.

However, only the Old Woman falls under the sanctions. She finds herself relegated to Serie B before receiving 9 points taken off in the 2006-2007 season, as well as the revocation of titles acquired in 2005 and 2006. All this is accompanied by a fine of 80,000 euros.

2020: Case of Suarez

Pretty quiet at the judicial level for a big decade, Juventus are talking about it again in 2020. Luis Suarez is a very prominent player this year and is preparing to leave Barcelona for Atlético de Madrid. But the leadership of the Turin club does not hear that. The time is close to a move to Juve, so Suarez leaves, but the Italians decide to try everything in the world.

Officially, Turintsy no longer have the right to hire legionnaires, since they have exhausted the established quota. So, in a fit of desperation, the Uruguayan striker is trying to be naturalized in Italy. To do this, Suarez must pass the tests. The problem is that these exams turned out to be fake, because the player would have received test questions before he passed them.

“The investigation made it possible to understand how, in early September, the leaders of the Turin club became more active, including at the highest institutional level, in order to “accelerate” the recognition of Italian citizenship for Suarez,” the Perugian public then points out. prosecutor’s office conducting the investigation. Finally, Luis Suarez quits and prefers to work with Atlético.

2022: Interrupted Super League and accounts in danger

Last year, Juventus Turin still made headlines by going to the European Court of Justice in the context of an arbitration over the Superliga project, of which it is one of the main advocates. UEFA really opened a case, in particular, against Juventus. But it will be necessary to wait until the beginning of 2023, when the European Court of Justice makes its final decision.

Then, at the end of the calendar year, President Andrea Agnelli, who has been in power for twelve years, and the entire board of directors of Juventus resign during an extraordinary meeting. The reason for these many departures? The Turin prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into the club’s accounts. Indeed, possible violations of the rules of financial fair play, as well as the contested issuance of licenses, will be in question. The club and its leaders will be judged in the coming months.

And if the club is probably there for nothing, remember that Paul Pogba was a Bianconeri player during the extortion case in which he was the target. Proof that justice is always there in Piedmont.