Ex-Juventus president Andrea Agnelli has ban reduced from 16 to 10 months on appeal

Former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli had one of his soccer bans reduced from 16 to 10 months after appealing to the Italian soccer federation in the salaries investigation on Monday. Agnelli was charged with fraud for the way he handled player salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic.

Also, a fine of 60,000 euros ($65,000) was reduced to 40,000 euros ($43,000). No reasons were given for the reductions. Agnelli is also serving a two-year ban for a false accounting case.

Juventus and seven other former Juventus directors agreed to a plea bargain with the federation in May over the salary case, while Agnelli was the only figure in the case who decided to be judged. At the start of the pandemic, Juventus said 23 players agreed to reduce their salary for four months to help the club through the crisis. But prosecutors claim the players gave up only one month’s salary. Agnelli and Juventus have denied wrongdoing. He and the entire Juventus board resigned last November following the investigation by Turin prosecutors into false accounting, which led to the team being deducted 10 points last season.

The false accounting case also led to Juventus being excluded by UEFA from the third-tier Europa Conference League for this season. Agnelli has also appealed his two-year ban to a regional appeals court.