Juventus hit with 15-point deduction over transfer dealings

Juventus is docked 15 points for their transfer activities. According to the national soccer federation (FIGC), Juventus has been docked 15 points for the current season by an Italian soccer court looking into its transfer activities. The decision, which hurts the club's image as well, is more severe than the nine-point reduction a soccer prosecutor had asked for at a hearing earlier in the day about the manner Juventus and a few other clubs handled player exchange arrangements. Juventus finished third in Serie A with 37 points after 20 games this season, 10 points behind leaders Napoli. They drop to 10th position as a result of the deduction, outside of the slots necessary to qualify for lucrative European play.The court further issued lifetime prohibitions from holding office in a late-night announcement.Italian soccer on 11 former and current directors of Juventus.These included 30 months for former sports director Fabio Paratici, who is currently managing director of football at English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, and 24 months for Andrea Agnelli, who was officially replaced as chairman last week after stepping down in November.Once the ruling's justifications were made public, Juventus declared that it will file an appeal with the nation's sports guarantee authority.The club's attorneys said in a statement: "We believe this to be a flagrant injustice for millions of supporters, which we hope will be addressed in the next court."Juventus has said that its accounting complied with industry norms and denied any misconduct.

They denied misconduct and insisted that its accounting followed accepted industry practises.The Exor holding company, whose shares are traded on the Milan stock market, owns and controls the club.The verdict overturned one made in April that absolved Juventus, ten other teams, and their officials of wrongdoing.In order to review fresh evidence gathered by public prosecutors in the city of Turin who are looking into Juventus' finances, soccer officials reopened the case and asked that portions of the original ruling be overturned.The court upheld the dismissal of prosecutors' requests to revive the case against eight additional soccer organisations, including Serie A teams Sampdoria and Empoli, and their directors.Agnelli, 11 other individuals, and the club itself have all been ordered to stand trial by Turin public prosecutors on charges of fraudulent accounting. Gianluca Ferrero, an accountant connected to John Elkann, the senior business figure in the family that has controlled Juventus for a century, was elected as chairman of the Juventus shareholders-elected new five-member board earlier this week.