The entire board of directors of Juventus resigned last night. The decision taken unanimously derives from the involvement in the Prisma investigation for false accounting and from the objections of Consob. Andrea Agnelli leaves the presidency after 12 years.
It is Gianluca Ferrero, accountant, auditor, mayor and director of various companies, the man that Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family which controls Juventus, will indicate as president of the black and white company. Ferrero – explains Exor – has solid experience and the necessary technical skills, as well as a genuine passion for the Juventus club, which make him the most suitable person to hold the position. Exor will communicate the complete list of candidates for the renewal of the board of directors within the terms of the law, ie 25 days before the meeting of 18 January.
Twist at Juventus. The entire board of directors, starting with the chairman Andrea Agnelli, has resigned in the evening. A decision made at the end of a long meeting of the extraordinary board convened in the afternoon at the Continassa. In the documentation examined by the board “the new legal and accounting opinions of the independent experts appointed to assess the critical issues highlighted by Consob on the company’s financial statements as at 30 June 2021”; during the day, the Juventus council “reexamined the objections of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Turin, the deficiencies and criticalities detected by Consob and the remarks raised by the auditing firm Deloitte&Touche”. Thus ends the era of Agnelli, 12 years at the helm of the club, with nine consecutive championships, other trophies, two Champions League finals, a sensational coup like the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. And then the descending parable with the investigation into the financial statements, in the crosshairs of the magistrates, the ‘salary maneuvers’ and the capital gains and the criticisms of Consob. A troubled period, with the accounts heavily in the red, -253 million this year after the loss of 209 in the previous year, and very bitter even on the pitch with the team eliminated from the Champions League already in the group stage and very far from leaders Napoli in the league.
And the grumbling of the fans, critical of the management especially for the decision to re-entrust the team to coach Allegri. Steps, the judicial ones, with the searches by the Guardia di Finanza, and by the Stock Exchange, which caused the shareholders’ meeting to be postponed twice, first postponed from the end of October to November 23rd and then to December 27th. A wake-up call that something unusual was going on. The management, which had already presented its counter-deductions to the supervisory body of the Stock Exchange, was convinced to turn to other experts. And it is precisely from the accusations of the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office and from the observations of Consob that the long reflection that led the Juventus board of directors to present his resignation began, asking only the managing director Maurizio Arrivabene to remain in his role in the bridging phase until 18 January 2023, when the shareholders’ meeting was convened which will have to approve the new board of directors. But in the Juventus club, always considered a block of granite, compactness has failed, Agnelli himself clearly stated in the open letter released in the evening at the height of the cyclone: “When the team isn’t compact, it lends its side to the opponents and this can be fatal. At that moment – wrote the Juventus president – you need to be lucid and contain the damage: we are facing a delicate moment from a corporate point of view and compactness has less. It’s better to leave everyone together, giving the possibility to a new formation to overturn that game”. A new era therefore opens in the history of Juventus. If the names of Del Piero and Chiellini gain share in the word of mouth of the fans, while rumors grow about a role for Alessandro Nasi, the first step is the appointment of Maurizio Scanavino as general managerand, an assignment that the outgoing board of directors conferred on him “in order to strengthen the management of the company”. Scanavino, however, will maintain his positions in the Gedi group, of which he is managing director.
Source: Ansa
Brayden White, a veteran sports writer at Global Happening, brings his wealth of knowledge and expertise to the sports section. With over a decade of experience, he is committed to delivering high-quality coverage of the latest games and events.