Juventus Deducted 15 Points, As Punishment Over Financial Irregularities.

Juventus have been deducted 15 points from the current season after inflating transfer values and lying to financial officials in an attempt to save money.

Friday saw the case involving Juventus and eight other clubs heard before the Italian Federal Court of Appeal.

The deduction comes to after a prosecutor for the Italian Football Federation found Juventus guilty of a number of financial violations with false accounting that saved the club millions in player salaries and transfer budgets, including the including the player swap with Barcelona that sent Arthur to Juventus and Miralem Pjanic to Barcelona. In total, 62 transfers were inspected, of which 42 involved Juve.

The club reportedly saved €90 million (£78m/$97m) in player salaries back in 2020, helping the club's value stay steady on the stock market.

The Prosecutor's Office had initially asked for nine penalty points for the bianconeri team, but after the case was reopened, but the sanction of the Federal Court of Appeals has gone even further, with Federal Prosecutor Giuseppe Chine saying: "The penalty must be afflictive".

Juventus is currently third on the table with 37 points, 10 behind leaders Napoli, with 20 matches left to play.

Without those points, Juve would be left with 22 points and drop down to 10th place, tied in mid-table with Bologna and Empoli, outside the qualifying places for European competitions, but with a 13-point cushion over relegation.

As well as the points deduction, the court also imposed bans on 11 past and present Juventus directors.

These included 24 nonths for President Andrea Agnelli, who was replaced as chairman this week after stepping down in November, 8 months for vice-president Pavel Nedved, and 30 months for former sports director Fabio Paratici, who is now managing director of football at Tottenham Hotspur.

A statement from the FIGC confirmed the punishment in a statement that read: 

"The Federal Court of Appeal presided over by Mario Luigi Torsello has partially accepted the appeal of the Federal Prosecutor's Office... sanctioning Juventus with 15 penalty points to be served in the current football season and with a series of inhibitions for 11 Juventus executives (30 months for Fabio Paratici, 24 months for Andrea Agnelli and Maurizio Arrivabene, 16 months for current sporting director Federico Cherubini, eight months for Pavel Nedved, Paolo Garimberti, Enrico Vellano, Assia Venier, Caitlin Hughes, Daniela Marilungo and Francesco Roncaglio)."

Meanwhile, the other clubs involved in the investigation Empoli, Genoa, Sampdoria, Parma, Pisa, Pescara, Novara and Pro Vercelli have all been acquitted.

The Series A giants Juventus, who have been waiting for proceedings to develop since October after finding out the investigation was re-opened, have denied any wrongdoing on their part. 

It is being widely reported in Italian media that the club will appeal the decision to the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), according to Sky Sports. The committee can only decide whether a decision is correct or not, and has no power to change potential sanctions.

"We consider this to be a blatant injustice also for millions of fans, which we trust will soon be remedied in the next court," lawyers for the club said in a statement.

They have 30 days to do so. If the appeal is successful, the penalty cannot be changed, and it will be removed in its entirety.