Juventus will only lose 10 points this season instead of 15 for its role in the “capital gains case,” the Italian Football Federation announced Monday.
That would currently drop Juventus from second place in Serie A to seventh with 59 points, just outside of any European league competition berths with two matchdays left on the league calendar. Juventus will sit only one game behind Roma and two behind Atalanta. League-leading Napoli remains well atop the table with 86 points.
The ruling also acquitted eight club executives, including former Juventus vice-president Pavel Nedved.
“Juventus Football Club takes note of what was decided a little while ago by the FIGC Court of Appeal and reserves the right to read the reasons to evaluate a possible appeal to the Guarantee Board at CONI,” the club tweeted in a statement soon after the ruling and translated from Italian to English via Google. “What was established by the fifth level of judgment in this matter, which began more than a year ago, arouses great bitterness in the club and in its millions of supporters who, in the absence of clear rules, find themselves extremely penalized with the application of sanctions which seem to take into account the principle of proportionality.
“While not ignoring the need for speed, which Juventus has never shied away from during the proceedings, it is emphasized that these are facts that still have to be judged by the natural judge.”
An Italian court originally ruled in January that Juventus would be forced to forfeit 15 points because the club inflated the price of outgoing players in transfer deals to circumvent FIFA’s “Financial Fair Play” rules. Though not the only club to engage in these types of moves, Juventus’ status as a publically traded company meant it allegedly misled shareholders and used illegal accounting maneuvers on its balance sheet.
Juventus has won 59 domestic championships and cups since 1905, including 36 championships, but only five European championships — two UEFA Champions League titles and three UEFA Europa League titles.