Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer from Juventus to Manchester United is under investigation by authorities in Italy. The Portuguese star returned to Manchester United this summer for a fee worth €23 million, with €8 million in bonuses related to performances.
An investigation by COVISOC and finance regulator Consob is open and underway. A number of senior officials of the club are under the vigilance of the authorities. This includes club president Andrea Agnelli, vice president Pavel Nedved and former sporting director Fabio Paratici, who is currently at Tottenham.
The club itself is under a probe, and had its offices in Turin and Milan raided for a second time for the documents and invoices needed. Juventus have said that they are fully complying with the authorities regarding the investigation.
Juventus’ financial performance between 2019 and 2021 is being examined. They have been accused of falsely recording transfer fees and drafting invoices for non-existent transactions. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus officials spoke about ‘documents that should not have theoretically existed’ on recorded phone calls. Those documents are yet to be found.
The transfers of Miralem Pjanic, Cristian Romero, Joao Cancelo and Ronaldo are all under examination by the investigating bodies in Italy. If the Bianconeri are found guilty of breaching the norms, they may be given a heavy punishment.
They may be stripped of their 2020 Serie A title, and may be relegated to Serie B as well. This happened previously as part of the Calciopoli scandal, and could happen yet again in the 21st century.
