According to the Corriere dello Sport, Juventus are only one of the many clubs under investigation for inflated transfer values, including Napoli, Roma, Atalanta, Genoa and Sampdoria.
The investigation into Juve is formal, with the club’s offices in Turin and Milan raided on Friday and Saturday, but this could just be the beginning for Italian and European football.
It is part of a wider investigation into transfer values and the so-called plusvalenze – capital gains – especially when it comes to player exchanges.
Because the market dictates what a player is worth, two clubs can agree to a set fee, even if it is extremely inflated, allowing both of them to balance their books by trading assets seemingly worth huge sums.
Most often, it is seen with youth team players who are traded as part of a larger transfer and given vastly inflated prices.
According to the Corriere dello Sport, there are several clubs involved in the first stage of the investigation, which began secretly in the autumn of 2020.
They include Napoli, Roma, Atalanta, Genoa and Sampdoria.
Napoli are already being looked at in France for their deal with LOSC for Victor Osimhen, which was one of the clearest examples of the technique used.
Officially, that transfer was worth over €80m, but that included €20m worth of player exchanges.
The four players in question, goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis and three youth team products, didn’t really play for Lille and were released from their contracts after loans to Serie C sides.
It is also reported the FIGC requested the opportunity to share information with the financial authorities as part of their own investigation into plusvalenze in football.
Because this type of creative accounting requires two clubs to agree on the valuation of a player, it stands to reason that only the practice is widespread.