If 2022 produced a series of disappointments for Juventus, who finished the season without a trophy for the first time in a decade, 2023 has the potential to be even worse.
The Bianconeri are about to resume their league campaign with mixed feelings.
Before the World Cup break Juventus climbed to third in Serie A after six consecutive wins, two points behind AC Milan and 10 behind the impressive Napoli.
Results are not what worry fans and the club, though. What happened – and is still to happen – off the pitch does.
Juventus face several investigations from public prosecutors in Turin, the Italian Federal Council as well as Uefa.
“In the last 15 years, only Calciopoli [the scandal of 2006] was as bad as this. Then we got attacked from all sides – this time we created it all ourselves,” former chief financial officer Stefano Bertola, who was bugged while talking to present sport director Federico Cherubini, said in July 2021.
On 28 October 2022 the full Juventus board of directors resigned, with president Andrea Agnelli and vice-president Pavel Nedved among its 10 members. After 12 years and nine consecutive league titles, five Italian Cups, five Italian Supercups and five consecutive women’s league titles, the most successful Juventus president ever was forced to step down.
During his tenure, the club also inaugurated the JStadium, the JMedical and the JMuseum, all state-of-the-art assets. You cannot say he was not successful.
But their lack of silverware in Europe, marked by Champions League final defeats in 2015 and 2017, and the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo in August 2018, pushed Juventus towards a ravine which opened up completely as Covid broke out.
In September 2018, shortly after announcing Ronaldo, Juventus were worth 1.7bn euro. Today, despite 300m and 400m-euro recapitalisations in December 2019 and December 2021, the club is worth only 700m euro. The reason is a mix of exaggerated ambition and imponderable events.
Juventus face legal and sporting allegations for financial irregularities and false accounting, put in place to embellish their books, heavily hit by the pandemic. Being listed on the stock exchange, Juventus are obliged to show all their financial operations, something the investigating authorities claim they didn’t do..
