Andrea Agnelli, President of Juventus Turin, has surprisingly resigned along with the entire board. The Juve board is being investigated for alleged accounting fraud and irregularities in player transfers.
As the Italian record champions announced on Monday evening (November 28th, 2022) after an extraordinary board meeting, the entire board of the club, including President Andrea Agnelli and his deputy Pavel Nedved, has resigned. Managing director Maurizio Arrivabene, formerly team boss at the Ferrari Formula 1 racing team, is to accompany the transition until a new board is appointed. Arrivabene has also tendered his resignation, according to Gazetta dello Sport, along with seven other senior executives.
“We are in a delicate situation for the club“Agnelli wrote in an email to employees, quoted by the Ansa news agency.
Investigations against Agnelli and the Juve boardroom
At the end of October, the Turin public prosecutor’s office had completed the investigation into alleged accounting fraud and irregularities in player transfers against the club. It is said to be about amounts of 115 million euros that the club noted in the books in 2018, 2019 and 2020 from fictitious evaluations of its players. 16 accused are threatened with a process, including Agnelli, Arrivabene and Nedved.
The club, which is listed on the Milan stock exchange, is financially ailing, with Juve accumulating a loss of 254 million euros in the last financial year. Agnelli had explained the million minus with the corona pandemic. At least in terms of sport, Juve was on the upswing, although the “old lady” missed the knockout round in the Champions League, in Serie A Turin won six games in a row before the World Cup break.
Agnelli was at the helm of the Italian record champions for twelve years, he was considered a mastermind of the Super League and, with Juventus, was one of the remaining supporters of the introduction of a new European Super League.