The preliminary hearing for Juventus' accounts opens with a twist.
Judge Marco Picco cited the Juventus company and the auditing giant Ernst & Young as civilly responsible: in essence, the two figures on whom, in the event of a guilty verdict of the defendants, the civil parties can take action to obtain compensation.
Their eventual entry into the proceedings will be discussed on May 10.
It was the lawyers of some small shareholders who asked for the involvement of Juventus and EY.
Among the 13 defendants, in fact, there are two professionals who dealt with the revision of a couple of the club's financial statements on behalf of the British multinational, expressing (illegitimately according to the prosecution) favorable opinions.
The army of the aspiring civilian parties currently has about fifty units.
Someone moved on their own, others relied on associations such as Codacons and Siti.
"Those who bought Juventus shares around 2019 experienced an initial growth of 40% and, therefore, a collapse of about 79%", he says the lawyer Mariacristina Macrì on behalf of one of her clients.
"We have cases - explains Tiziana Sorriento, Codacons lawyer - of people who have lost from five to ten thousand euros, and also one who has suffered damage of 50 thousand".
But the eyes are focused above all on those who have not filed a civil action.
Consob was regularly in the courtroom and presented the request.
The Revenue Agency, despite having been included in the list of offended persons, was not there;
in this regard, the small shareholder Marco Bava, known in the news as the "disturber of the assemblies", made a jab: "As a citizen, I wonder why she didn't show up. Who decided that? Director Ruffini? Minister Giorgetti Or maybe the presidency of the Council?
The FIGC is also absent.
And absent the two superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala, who on the basis of the material collected by the prosecutor would have what it takes to claim fine millions in arrears from Juve.
When asked for a comment on this session of the preliminary hearing, the lawyer Maurizio Bellacosa, a member of the large defense team, which also includes the former minister Paola Severino, replied that "we are in full procedural regularity", adding that once the phase of the so-called constitution of the parties has been completed, we will move on to the real exceptions: "The first will be that on territorial jurisdiction".
The request is to transfer the process to Milan (or alternatively to Rome).
And it is very probable that the investigating judge Picco, by applying the Cartabia reform, will pass the ball to the Court of Cassation.
In short, a long stop is looming.
In the meantime, Juventus will have to continue the challenge with sports justice.
On April 19, the Board of Trustees will discuss the appeal against the -15th-placed.
But another game is looming: the federal prosecutor's office would in fact be on the point of closing the new investigation into the salary maneuver.
