Juventus handed 10-point penalty for false accounting, suffer major blow to its Champions League hopes

Juventus was hit with a fresh 10-point penalty on Monday, hampering its chances of qualifying for next year’s Champions League.

The latest punishment for false accounting dropped Juventus from second spot in Serie A to seventh.

It left the Bianconeri five points behind AC Milan, which moved into fourth place in Serie A and the final qualifying spot for the Champions League.

Juventus was playing at lowly Empoli late Monday. There are then two rounds remaining, including what will be a crucial match against AC Milan.

Juventus was handed a 15-point penalty in January while several members of its former board were also given bans from soccer activities, including former president Andrea Agnelli.

The points deduction was suspended last month on an appeal to the country’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee and referred back to the soccer federation’s appeals court for a new trial.

That took place on Monday. During a three-hour hearing, federation prosecutor Giuseppe Chiné requested an 11-point penalty for Juventus. He had asked for nine back in January.

Chiné also requested eight-month bans for seven former Juventus directors, including Pavel Nedvěd, but they were cleared on Monday.

Read More: Juventus in more legal trouble from probe into player salaries

Agnelli and three others had their appeals rejected last month. The Juventus board resigned en masse in November following an investigation by Turin public prosecutors into alleged false bookkeeping.

A sports trial in the case was then re-opened based on information from the Turin prosecutors, leading to the points deduction. Juventus had initially been cleared by the sports court the previous April.

The prosecutors in Turin have also charged Juventus, Agnelli and 11 others with false communications by a company listed publicly on the Milan stock exchange, obstructing watchdog agencies, false billing and market manipulation.

Juventus’ legal troubles deepened still further last week after the Italian soccer federation also charged the club and seven former team directors with alleged fraud for the way they handled player salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic.