Juventus banned from the European Cup for the season 2023-2024
The Italian club was also fined $ 22 million, but only had to pay $ 11 million and the rest was suspended. Specifically, UEFA will make Juventus pay the remaining 11 million USD if there are irregularities in the club's annual financial statements for the years 2023, 2024 or 2025. UEFA said that Juventus violated UEFA's regulatory framework and violated the club's annual financial statements. breach of the settlement agreement signed in August 2022, resulting in this penalty.
With this UEFA penalty, Juventus will not participate in the Europa Conference League 2023-2024. Their spot was given to Fiorentina - the team that finished eighth in Serie A last season. The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) must submit an application for the next club in the Serie A scoreboard last season, which UEFA will then confirm.
Juventus' expulsion also helps Aston Villa move from the unseeded group to the seeded group to attend the Europa Conference League 2023-2024 play-offs in August.
Juventus confirmed that it will not appeal, when President Gianluca Ferrero said that an appeal to other levels of judgment will also have a result and time is not determined, affecting the preparation process for the new season. He wants the players, fans, sponsors, financial partners to be able to go through the 2023-2024 season with the greatest serenity and certainty of the results that can be achieved on the pitch, especially after the season. The 2022-2023 tournament is full of storms. Ferrero considers the UEFA ruling to help Juventus "can now focus on playing on the field, instead of in the court next season".
Juventus is accused of inflating player transfer fees with other Italian clubs for the period 2019-2021 to evade taxes. They also misreported losses as well as used fake profits from transfers to circumvent Financial Fair Play (FFP). In January 2023, the Court of Appeal of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) decided to deduct Juventus 15 points for violations related to accounting, financial reporting and market manipulation. "The Old Lady" appealed to the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).
On April 19, during a hearing held by CONI, prosecutor Ugo Taucer said that the FIGC's decision "has no clear basis and requires a new judgment for Juventus". Pending a new ruling, "Old Lady" was returned 15 points. However, on May 22, the FIGC Court of Appeal re-tried and agreed to subtract 10 points from Juventus, making them finish the season in seventh place in Serie A with 62 points.
Meanwhile, Juventus has always denied any wrongdoing and insists it operates in accordance with the law and accounting principles as well as in accordance with international football industry practices and market conditions.
On July 28, UEFA also announced a fine of $ 11 million for Chelsea when it discovered cases of sending part of financial information in historical transactions that occurred between 2012 and 2019, in violation of the regulations on Club Licensing. and UEFA's Financial Fair Play Law, when the club was still owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
Chelsea later said it had received "potentially incomplete" financial statements under previous ownership, as a consortium led by billionaire Todd Boehly completed the takeover of the club for $5.2 billion. in May 2022. Therefore, the club has self-reported these issues, fully cooperated, supported UEFA in the investigation process and wanted this case to be over soon.
