Chaos days at Italy's record champions Juventus: The ugly face of the »Stilo Juve«

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Juventus captain Paulo Dybala desperate after losing to Atalanta

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MASSIMO PINCA / REUTERS

Actually, in season one after Cristiano Ronaldo, everything should get better at Juventus Turin.

From the team, a theory that had long been cultivated in the press was approved, according to which the five-time world footballer from Portugal was actually just a block on the leg despite his many goals.

"We're playing more as a team again, in the recent past we had lost this Juve attribute," mused defender Leonardo Bonucci about a month ago.

"The renewed humility will bring us back to the road to victory."

The famous “Stilo Juve”: hard work, seriousness, solidarity.

The values ​​of the industrial city of Turin, the Fiat factory and the old Agnellis.

They made Juventus great, sticking to them means success.

That's what the legend says.

The November reality 2021 tells of football from the Stone Age and, before today's appearance at the bottom of the table Salernitana (8.45 p.m. / Stream: Dazn), a seventh place in the table, 14 points behind leaders Napoli.

In addition, the ugliest face of the Juve style now rises: It is said to have been poorly managed again.

Investigations by the financial police - also against club icon Nedved

On Friday, the financial police searched club rooms in Turin and Milan and confiscated documents.

The Italian record champions are said to have tweaked their balance sheets between 2019 and 2021 through fictitious wins.

"Prisma" is the name of the prosecution's operation, which has been investigating since May 2021 and has so far suspected six people, including club boss Andrea Agnelli - nephew of the mythical patron Gianni - and his vice, ex-club star Pavel Nedved, 2003 Golden Ball winner .

Both are said to have at least approved the practices of the also accused sports director Fabio Paratici, now Tottenham Hotspur.

According to the research, Juventus artificially inflated prices on transfers.

A prominent example is the purchase of Arthur Melo for 72 million euros from FC Barcelona in summer 2020, to which Miralem Pjanić was given for 60 million euros - unreal tariffs amid the pandemic.

42 transfers are under suspicion

Because the income is usually booked immediately in the annual report, but the output is spread over several years, the annual balance sheet looks more friendly.

Real money, so the suspicion, never flowed;

at least not in the specified amount.

According to media reports, a total of 42 Juve transfers are under suspicion. They are said to stand for up to 282 million euros in artificial profits, with which the 2019, 2020 and 2021 balance sheets have been embellished and high losses of the listed club have been masked. Discrepancies in salary payments - there should also be a reference to Ronaldo in a tapped phone call - and consultant fees are also being investigated. Juventus announced that it was cooperating with the authorities and was convinced that it had acted "in accordance with the laws and standards".

The Italian consumer protection Codacons see it differently.

Its President Marco Donzelli said on Monday that the allegations were "very serious" and "cast a sinister light on the last football championships".

Should Juventus have gained a competitive advantage, it should not stop at punishing individual people.

"In order to protect thousands of fans, we will file a complaint with the antitrust authorities and the attorney general to demand that Juventus be relegated to Serie B and the last titles (...) withdrawn."

The forced relegation of 2006

There has already been a forced relegation.

In the wake of the Calciopoli manipulation scandal, the main burdened Juventus was transferred to the second division under penalty of its manager Luciano Moggi in 2006.

The Turinese accepted, apparently re-emerged purified, but at the same time presented themselves as victims.

The officially revoked championships in 2005 and 2006 still count as titles to this day, which is why they come to 38 (instead of 36) "Scudetti" according to their own calculations.

Critics and opposing fans - no other team in Italy is loved by so many, but also so hated - never really believed in the change from Saul to Paul.

For them, at the latest in the frenzy of nine championships in a row between 2012 and 2020, the old Juve arrogance crept in again.

The grotesque, for example, is remembered about the falsified language test by Luis Suárez, which Juventus wanted to undertake as a naturalized Italian - the Uruguayan was then sent the questions in advance by the University of Perugia.

Or the failed poker game for the European super league, which Agnelli secretly pushed ahead with Real Madrid's President Florentino Pérez in the shadow of his position as head of the European club association and in which he has so far only lost: his old post, a lot of influence, the last sympathies in the rest of Calcio.

So now the public prosecutor again.

Fraud like 2006?

The Juventus share falls 6.34 percent

At least once before: expiration.

The Juventus share fell on Monday by 6.34 percent.

In 2021 it lost a total of 34.38 percent and is now quoted lower than immediately before the Ronaldo commitment in 2018, which should lift the club into new spheres - but ultimately contributed to today's bottlenecks because of the high costs.

Last week Juventus had to resolve a capital increase by 399 million euros.

The wallet does not make fancy balance sheets thicker.

Neither does the trophy cabinet.

"If we are in the table like this, we are no longer worth anything," said coach Max Allegri at the weekend and quickly declared fourth place to be the new goal of the season.

It is the place that Juventus reached with Ronaldo last season.

Currently, however, seven points are missing.