Juventus chaos: Could Ronaldo's former club be stripped of its last Serie A title?

Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo's former club Juventus have had a torrid start to their Serie A season as they sit seventh in the league table having won only six of their 14 games played so far and 14 points adrift of the top. Things took a turn for the worse when they went under investigation and had their offices raided by the financial police in relation to player transfers and agent dealings between 2019 and this year.

CODACONS group president Marco Donzelli, who runs the Italian association for the protection of consumer rights, explained the possible repercussions these investigations could have, including having their last Serie A title stripped away from them. Donzelli was quoted by TMW, "The accusatory system is very serious and throws a sinister light on the last football championships, also because there has been a real Juventus dominance in recent years, which ended in the past year. If Juventus were to have illegitimately gained an advantage over rival clubs with operations of this type, then the regularity of the last football championships would fail and, as a consequence, the Federation and the Authority for market competition will have to intervene and sanction those responsible."

Juventus could be stripped of the 2020 Serie A title

He then further added that while the individuals involved will be punished, CODACONS will also present a complaint so that the club is punished in the form of being relegated to Serie B and stripping for the 2020 Serie A title.

"Beyond individual responsibilities, the club will not be exempt from punishment. For this reason and to protect thousands of fans, we will present a complaint to the Antitrust and the Federal Prosecutor's Office asking for the relegation to Serie B for Juventus and the revocation of the last league titles won in the shadow of these potentially illegal operations."

Italian market regulator CONSOB is currently investigating the Old Lady over revenue from player transfers that were €43.2 million (now $50 million) in 2020-21 and €172 million (now $195 million) in the previous financial year. Juventus confirmed that its president Andrea Agnelli and vice president Pavel Nedved along with chief financial officer Stefano Cerrato and other former staff were all under investigation.

Image: AP