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Juventus’ board of directors, president Andrea Agnelli and vice president Pavel Nedved resigned en masse on Monday.
The stunning move follows a preliminary investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office into fraudulent accounting and alleged hidden payments to players.
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At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Juventus said 23 players agreed to reduce their salary for four months to help the club through the crisis. But its claimed the players gave up only one month’s salary.
Prosecutors have been investigating since last year whether Juventus, which is listed on the Milan stock exchange, cashed in on illegal commissions from transfer and loans of players. The case is also exploring if investors were misled with invoices being issued for non-existent transactions to demonstrate income that in turn could be deemed false accounting.
Juventus said last year that it was cooperating with investigators but that “it believes to have acted in compliance with the laws and regulations governing the preparation of financial reports.”
The Serie A giants sit third in the standings right now, 10 points behind leaders Napoli, and were eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage this season following an uncharacteristic string of poor results.
A shareholders meeting rescheduled for Dec. 27 was postponed again to Jan. 18 to choose a new board.