There was a “widespread awareness” among Juventus’ top management of a “management heralding losses” and that “excessive use of capital gains” had been made. The president knew it Andrea Agnellibut also, writes the Turin prosecutor’s office in the request for a precautionary measure which had been rejected by the investigating judgethe managing director Maurice Arrivabene. And the seriousness of the situation had not escaped even the president of Exor, John Elkannwhich is not investigated by the prosecution.
The genesis of risks
The investigators of the Guardia di Finanza had picked up a telephone call, dated 6 September 2021, in which Agnelli and Elkann were discussing the renewal of the board of directors and the board of statutory auditors of Juventus, with the names to be included in the list of possible candidates. They spoke of the importance of the audit committee, the control and risk committee, which would be responsible for checking and monitoring investments with respect to the medium-term plan. “The theme here, and let’s go back to the genesis, to the anamnesis of the situation: that is, we have always taken risks and the board has always been informed that they have been taken and corrective measures have always been found along the way – said the president Agnelli – that is, if I go to get the book of the Juventus Council, I find all these information to the Council with respect to the investment plan”. “Yes, but as you remember, you said that in the end there was, on the part of the sports management, (…) they expanded, there are a whole series of operations that they did”, was Elkann’s reply . “Exactly – Agnelli had returned to the subject – making excessive use of the instrument of capital gains: if the market collapses, the market collapses! This is a fact”.
Allegri’s words
The Exor CEO then also reported that he had spoken to the coach Massimiliano Allegrithat according to him he had to be careful “not to say that the policies that have been made in recent years were senseless, a lot of money has been spent on players who don’t know (…)”, “and then – the investigators report again in another excerpt from the conversation – what were the prerogatives of the market were the prerogatives of the marked at that time, now we need to manage things in the best possible way (…) in the end, what the others have done before, who cares”. “Yes, I totally agree,” Agnelli said.
Emblematic for the prosecution is the dialogue intercepted a few days later between Arrivabene and a member of the board of directors, Francis Roncaglio. It is 17 September and the CEO comments on the intervention made in a meeting of the Board: “Look, that intervention I made on the cash flow is precisely the original sin of these years because if you don’t consider the players’ investments full , i.e. full in the sense… not according to the fact that I will pay them in N years, but that I have made a commitment today for then and therefore I have to consider all the commitments I have made today, I in the end with some exchanges, some divestment operation apparently (…) I keep the NFP (net financial position, ed.) well under control, but the truth is that under bubbles and a NFP is growing which I don’t take into account today, but which is already…”.
From Higuain to Ronaldo, the causes of debts
The investigators note Arrivabene’s opinion according to which the problem was in the board of directors where the “actual” data was exposed, and therefore “they show you the improvements you will have over the years but without showing you the details”. Roncaglio reiterated that the “actuals” exposed were those of the last 6 months, also contesting that “saying that we have burned 4 million this year means not knowing how to read the company’s numbers because we have burned 100! to see that he has kept the accounts balanced, but you have kept them because you have sold a credit, because you have not paid your debts and because you do not consider all the financial commitments you have made!”. “You understand, however – he added – that this is not generating cash, it is taking time with suppliers, selling the family jewels or mortgaging the house and not considering all the investments but only considering the first installment… then you are not telling me the story for what it is (…) Even more embarrassing is the cash flow calculated including the capital increases!”.
Arrivabene replied: “You commented it correctly when you said that the capital increase served to cover a hole”. And here Roncaglio had returned to talking about the origin of the troubles: “But excuse me, it’s the huge mistake we made last time (…) the first capital increase served to shore up the operations born in Higuain’s time, we instead l “we used to buy Ronaldo, to grow, then it’s clear that the wheel exploded: we were at 300 an hour, the covid was unimaginable. But the problem here is that we must have the right speedometer, otherwise you don’t understand why speed are you going”.
The surprise of the footballers questioned: “The agreement was to give up just one month”
by Federica Cravero, Sarah Martinenghi
