Juventus: Decision on the -15 by Thursday morning, optimism for the penalty to be overturned

The hearing of Juventus -15’s complaint before the competent committee of CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee, lasted two hours and 45 minutes and resulted in several optimistic messages for the Italian club.

Calling for the miscarriage of justice sentence to be overturned, Juventus had an ally… the prosecutor, who admitted the federation’s judiciary (FIGC) had no basis to deduct so many points for the offense that put the team in the dock.

Juventus and its agents are accused of artificially inflating transfer earnings, which led to capital gains, but the defense argued that this amounts to €60,000,000 or 3.6% of their earnings over three years.

Also, ten other clubs (Napoli, Sampdoria, Genoa, Empoli, Parma, Pisa, Pescara, Novara, Chievo and Pro Vercelli) along with 59 people were initially accused of the same practice, but they were all acquitted on April 15 because The court decided that it is impossible to independently determine the value of a football player.

Juventus were the only team not to be acquitted when new evidence implicating them in the case emerged in January.

FIGC prosecutor Giuseppe Chinet did not attend the hearing and was replaced by CONI’s sports prosecutor general Hugo Taucher, who broadly supported Juventus’ position on misconduct. Taucher claimed that was the case “Uncertainty about the reason for the penalty of 15 points, which must be evaluated and taken into account in a new procedure”.

Juventus’ legal team argued in a 99-page, nine-count appeal that the new evidence, which suddenly surfaced before the first trial and led to new charges, gave the club no right of defence.

He also argued that the allegations against the club should at most be punished with a fine and not with a point deduction.

The Italian media claim that the decision will be made no later than Thursday morning and that of the three options of having the original sentence overturned, the retrial and the overturning of the sentence, the first has the least chance.