The entire board of the Italian football club Juventus resigned on Monday. The club reports this in a statement. An investigation into fraud by the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office is the cause of the departure.
The club is suspected of possible accounting fraud and irregularities in transfers. It concerns an amount of 115 million euros in fictitious valuations of players. The research is done under the name ‘Prisma’. The Italian stock market watchdog CONSOB examines, among other things, the club’s annual accounts from 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Due to increasing pressure on the board, an emergency meeting was held. The board of directors announced that it was stepping down. They include President Andrea Agnelli and Vice President Pavel Nedved. Agnelli belongs to the family that founded the industrial group and car manufacturer Fiat. They own the majority of the Juventus shares. General manager Maurizio Arrivabene has been asked to stay on to deal with current affairs.
‘Delicate moment’
“We are facing a delicate moment and the achievement of unity has failed. It is better to leave all together and give a new team the chance to change course,” Agnelli said in a letter addressed to all Juventus employees, which was partly published by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Agnelli was appointed president of the Italian club in 2010. In the twelve years that the ‘Old Lady’ was under his leadership, the club won nine consecutive national titles. This year Juventus has a less good season. The club is third in the Italian league and did not survive the group stage of the Champions League. The club reported a record loss of 254.4 million in September.