Cristiano Ronaldo has found his name at the center of financial irregularities at former club Juventus, which could see the Italian outfit face fines of up to £51m, an investigation has found.
The Manchester United star is alleged to have received payments during the Covid pandemic that were meant to be withheld, with The Daily Mail reporting that the club and 16 of his bosses, including deputy chairman Pavel Nedved, are also part of the investigation.
But the Serie A team is facing a potentially huge fine for paying the Portuguese, as well as other, as yet unidentified, players.
Despite announcing salary cuts among their squad in March 2020, Juventus have apparently paid certain stars during the pandemic.
And these payments appear to have been kept secret by the Italian side, after publicly announcing that their players would not be paid for at least four months.
But documents recently discovered between the Turin giants and Ronaldo reveal that despite these assurances, the club concealed a £17m payout.
The Italian party has now been placed under investigation by the Turin Prosecutor’s Office, and if found guilty of doing so, they will face serious sanctions and repercussions.
Italian media outlets La Gazzetta dello Sport and La Repubblica have reported that the uncovered documents have played an integral role in the investigation.
“It is important to remember that the issue of capital gains from so-called swap operations is the issue from which the entire investigation by the Turin Prosecutor’s Office started, which ended yesterday,” read a statement from Juventus’ lawyers.
“This is an issue today that does not merit news, to the extent that two sports justice bodies have already recognized the full accounting regularity of the company, which has acted in full coherence with the practice of the soccer industry.”
“In terms of salary reductions, as well as other related costs and changes, these are key corporate governance initiatives adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic emergency, which led to the suspension of football competitions and the closure of the stadiums”, the club’s legal statement. the team explained.
And Juventus are no strangers to financial misconduct, in July 2006 the club was relegated to Serie B and stripped of its league win from previous seasons after being embroiled in a match-fixing scandal.
Looking down the barrel of another money-based investigation, the board of the Old Lady of Turin will have to face music once again.
