A judge in Turin has began to look into cases against 12 previous officials of Juventus including the former chairman Andrea Agnelli and Sporting director Fabio Paratici.
The ongoing hearing is to determine if the team and the officials should face trial over several allegations.
The indictments are based on false accounting and market manipulation carried out by Juventus.
On the first day of the hearing that was done behind closed doors, beginning procedural matters were looked into before adjournment till the 10th of May.
The hearing is anticipated to be done in several months, after which judge Marco Picco will make a decision if they would proceed on a trial.
In December 2022, prosecutors asked to send the entire defendants to trial after allegedly discovering inconsistencies in the team’s accounting and statements made available to the financial markets in the last three years.
The Turin based club are alleged to have done some plus and minuses on their books
Prosecutors from Turin claimed the club reduced its financial losses so as to balance the books for three campaigns notably the 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaign.
Alongside the indictment, they have been making enquiry into the values put on player transfers between teams and if as put forward, wages were forgone while the COVID-19 pandemic was in full effect or basically suspended.
The side based in Turin is accused of wrong corporate communications, false information relayed to the stock market and blocking a supervisory head.
However, they have refuted any wrongdoing and stated their accounting tallies with the stipulated laid down guidelines.
The early hearing on Monday was due to acertain whether the 12 previous Juventus executives and directors indicted of the supposed misconduct should face trial even though all of them have claimed innocence over any wrongdoing.
Agnelli, Fabio Paratici, former vice-president of Juventus and great midfielder Pavel Nedved have all been enmeshed in this, in addition to CEO Maurizio Arrivabene.
Andrea Agnelli exited the role as Chairman of Juventus, stepping down alongside other members of the board in November 2022, few days before the prosecutor’s demand for a trial.
Paratici’s role comes at an abysmal moment for Tottenham Hotspur where he has been with the club for two years as Sporting director.
On Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur parted ways with Antonio Conte and this would lead to Paratici hunting for a replacement in quick time.
In spite of exiting Juventus to join Tottenham Hotspur in 2021, claims of malpractice still continues to hover around him.
The 50-year-old was banned from holding any post in Italian football for 30 months back in January 2023.
Paratici at the end of the hearing accepted a request by some minority shareholders to hold Juventus and auditing organization Ernst&young solely responsible for damages, should Juventus be found guilty of the allegations.
The matter has garnered huge attention all over Italy with Juventus who is owned by the Agnelli family for little over a 100 years having large chunk of fans across the country.
One of the prosecutor’s for this case against Juventus pulled out
One of the lawyers in charge of the matter last week left the role after comments showed he has had disparaging comments in the past about Juventus due to his support for Italian top-flight club Napoli.
The Turin criminal investigation has activated a different search into the club’s finances by Italy’s sport authority, which led to a 15-point deduction slammed on Juventus earlier this season.
Following the postponement of the hearing on Monday, a lawyer of Juventus detailed the next move in the proceedings.
Maurizio Bellacosa in an interview with reporters said: “We are still in a phase where the parts involved are being identified.”
“It will be completed in the next hearing on May 10, and, if there is time, the preliminary hearing will immediately begin, also deciding on the territorial jurisdiction.”
Juventus are 7th on the Serie A table, seven points adrift of the top 4 and behind AC Milan currently occupying the 4th spot on the table.
