An Italian soccer prosecutor has requested that Juventus be docked nine points in Serie A this season because of the way it accounted for player transfers.
Juve are currently third in Serie A, 10 points adrift of leaders Napoli after 18 games. The points deduction would push them down into seventh place in Serie A. The request was made at a hearing on Friday looking at the way Juve, Italy’s most successful club, and a number of other teams dealt with player exchange deals.
Soccer prosecutors had sought the partial cancellation of an initial ruling made last year acquitting Juventus, other clubs and their executives in the case. They wanted to assess new documents collected by public prosecutors in the city of Turin who are investigating the finances of Juventus. Juventus have denied wrongdoing and said their accounting was in line with industry standards.
A source close to the matter confirmed Italian media reports of the demand for Juventus to be docked points. Other clubs involved would not be punished as severely. In Friday’s hearing lawyers for Juventus said prosecutors had not brought in new elements which were adequate to support their request for a new ruling.
In a 73-page defense document seen by Reuters, Juventus lawyers said the Football Federation had not introduced criteria to establish a fair valuation in player trading deals. Giuseppe Chine, the soccer prosecutor, has also requested that former Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli be banned from holding office in Italian soccer for 16 months, and sought a 20-month ban for Fabio Paratici, who was the club’s sports director.
Paratici is now managing director of football at England’s Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. The case centered on the values attached to players exchanged between clubs.
The capital gain from a player transfer goes straight onto a club’s accounts while the cost of a purchase can be spread over the life of a contract, creating scope to flatter the balance sheet with inflated valuations.
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