An Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC)
tribunal on Tuesday accepted a plea bargain between Juventus and
sporting prosecutors for the Turin club to pay a fine of
718,000-euro fine over a case regarding irregularities in an
agreement for salary cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic, sources
said on Tuesday.
The deal entails Juve agreeing not launch appeals in pending
cases, the sources said.
The Turin giants have been docked 10 Serie A points this season
in a separate case about financial irregularities regarding
allegedly inflated values assigned to some transfer dealings in
the club's balance sheets in recent years.
The wages case regards Juve's announcement at the start of the
pandemic that players had agree to take a big pay cuts for four
months to enable the club to make ends meet during the health
emergency.
The club, however, allegedly made secret payments to players,
who only gave up one month's salary.
The fine will be paid by the club and by several former Juve
executives implicated in the case.
The case of former Chairman Andrea Agnelli, however, has been
separated from the others and he will face a hearing on June 15,
the sources said.
Juve's share price on the Milan stock exchange climbed 7% to
0.31 euros after the news of the plea bargain came out.
Juventus said Tuesday it agreed to a plea bargain with sporting
prosecutors over the COVID-salary-cut case in order to end
uncertainty, "while reiterating the correctness of its actions
and the soundness of its defensive arguments".
"The settlement of all open FIGC sports proceedings allows the
Company to achieve a definite result, settling the matter and
overcoming the state of tension and instability that would
inevitably descend from the continuation of disputes whose
outcomes and timing would remain uncertain," the Turin club
said.
It said this would also allow "the management, the coach of the
first team and the players to focus on sports activities and in
particular on the overall planning of the next season (with
regard to sports activities and to businessrrelationships with
sponsors, other commercial and financial counterparts)".
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