Juventus confirm club officials under investigation for false accounting

Milan, Nov 27, 2021 (AFP) - Juventus confirmed on Saturday that they were being investigated by prosectors over suspicious player transfers and potentially false accounting.

The Serie A club's offices were searched on Friday on orders of the Turin public prosecutors office, which said it was probing deals that were carried out over the past three seasons and the way annual financial results had been formulated in the same period.

Juve are being investigated for making false communications to investors and issuing invoices for non-existent transactions, prosecutors said.

Late on Saturday. Juve said that the club, chairman Andrea Agnelli, vice-chairman and former player Pavel Nedved, Chief Financial Officer Stefano Cerrato and "former officers" - reportedly Tottenham's sporting director Fabio Paratici - are under investigation for the offences.

Last month, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) launched an investigation of its own into a series of suspicious transfers, with the majority of the deals under the microscope involving Juve.

The operations are suspected of being carried out with the aim of inflating the value of certain players for accounting purposes, or using player exchanges to help balance the books.

Sky Sport Italia said that prosecutors are looking at some €282 million ($319.2 million) of suspect capital gains from transfer deals involving Juve.

News agency ANSA claimed on Saturday morning that prosecutors were also looking into the club's dealings with Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrived to great fanfare in the summer of 2018 and left for Manchester United in August.

ANSA also reported a source from football supervisory commission COVISOC as saying that since autumn last year it has identified dozens of deals that do not just concern Juve - who are listed on the Italian stock exchange.