Juventus have received notice that the investigation into the so-called ‘salary manoeuvres’ has concluded, with incoming charges of lacking fair play that could see more Serie A points penalties.
This is a separate investigation to the one that already saw Juve docked 15 points for artificially inflating transfer fees to boost capital gains and balance the books.
The appeal against that ruling will be heard on April 19 at the Collegio di Garanzia CONI.
Instead, the ‘salary manoeuvres’ refers to the announcement during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that the players would forego four months of their wages to help the club through difficult times.
The investigators claim that instead the squad only gave up one month, with the rest paid in various ‘secret’ agreements linked to sponsorship deals and contractual bonuses.
There are expected to be charges of breaching Article 4.1 in the code of ethics, which regards fair play.
According to news agency ANSA, Juventus now have 15 days to present their counter statement to the accusations.
From the very beginning, this has always seemed like the far more damaging of the two investigations, because while it is difficult to objectively ascertain the worth of a player on the transfer market other than what two clubs agree to, paying wages under the table would be considerably more clear-cut.
It also leaves a more visible paper trail and potentially opens Juve up to Financial Fair Play breaches and falsification of balance sheets.