Juventus have been handed a one-year ban from European competitions by UEFA for breaches of club licensing and financial fair play (FFP).
The Italian club have also been fined €20million (£17.1m, $22m), although €10m of that is conditional and will only be enforced if there are irregularities in Juventus’ annual financial statements for 2023, 2024 or 2025.
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The ban means Juventus will not compete in the 2023-24 Europa Conference League and will likely be replaced by Fiorentina, who finished eighth in Serie A last season. The Italian FA (FIGC) has to submit an entry form for the next club in the Serie A standings, which will then be confirmed by UEFA in due course.
The ban also sees Aston Villa move from the un-seeded to the seeded pot for August’s two-legged play-offs.
UEFA said Juventus “violated UEFA’s regulatory framework and breached the settlement agreement signed in August 2022”, leading to their punishment.
Juventus confirmed they would not appeal the decision, with club president Gianluca Ferrero saying they “can now face the new season by focusing on the field and not on the court”.
“We regret the decision of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body,” Ferrero added. “We do not share the interpretation that has been given of our defense, and we remain firmly convinced of the legitimacy of our actions and the validity of our arguments.
“However, we have decided not to appeal this judgment. This decision is in line with the one taken last May in the context of the disputes with the FIGC.
“As in that case, we prefer to put an end to the period of uncertainty and ensure full visibility and certainty to our internal and external stakeholders about the club’s participation in future international competitions.
“Lodging an appeal, possibly to other levels of judgement, with uncertain outcomes and timing, would increase the uncertainty with respect to our eventual participation in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League. Instead, we want the first team, our fans, our sponsors, suppliers and financial partners to be able to experience the 2023-24 season with the utmost serenity and certainty with respect to the results achievable on the pitch, especially after the turbulent past season.”
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UEFA opened a formal investigation into Juventus’ alleged financial violations in December.
The investigation concerned revenues from player registration rights between 2019 and 2021.
UEFA’s financial arm (CFCB) had previously reached a settlement with the club based on submitted information relating to the financial years ending in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. This acknowledged Juventus’ “failure to fulfil the break-even requirement” around FFP, but took into account the impact of the pandemic on clubs’ finances.
But European football’s governing body confirmed in December that the CFCB investigation would focus on “alleged financial violations” highlighted by the public prosecutor and said it reserved the right to terminate the three-year transitory agreement “if new and substantial facts arise”.
Juventus have already faced sanctions for alleged financial malpractice this year, having been handed an initial 15-point penalty in Serie A in January, which was suspended and then reduced to a 10-point punishment in May by the Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) Federal Court of Appeal in a case concerning inflated player trading revenue. This saw them drop out of the Champions League places and into seventh.
In May, the club accepted a fine of €718,000 as part of a plea-bargain struck with the FIGC that brought an end to the sporting penalties for financial malpractice in Italy.
The case in May was to adjudicate a second separate sporting case motivated by a criminal investigation known as Prisma, which brought allegations of false accounting, false financial statements and market manipulation.
Juventus have always denied any wrongdoing and maintained they operated in respect of the law and accounting principles and in line with international football industry practice and market conditions.
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