By Adegboyega Adeleye

Juventus have been sanctioned with a 15-point deduction following an investigation into the club’s past transfer dealings which revealed alleged financial irregularities and false accounting by the club hierarchy.

The Italian football federation (FIGC) confirmed that Juventus used transfers to artificially boost their balance sheet.

The FIGC has also hit the club’s former president, Andrea Agnelli and the club’s former chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene with long bans. The court ruled that Andrea Agnelli is to be banned from holding office in Italian football for 24 months.

The Serie A giants had been in third place, 10 points adrift of leaders Napoli after 18 games, but the penalty will drop them to 11th position ahead of their next league game at home to Atlanta on Sunday.

The sanction comes after the club’s board of directors, which includes president Andrea Agnelli –who served as president for 12 years during which time the club ran up record losses and vice-president Pavel Nedved, resigned in November.

In a statement in November, the outgoing board said their resignations were “considered to be in the best social interest to recommend that Juventus equip itself with a new board of directors to address these issues”.

Juventus’ former sports director Fabio Paratici, who is now Tottenham’s managing director of football, has been handed a 30-month ban from Italian football for his involvement in Juventus’ alleged false accounting. His ban includes a request for an extension to cover UEFA and FIFA activities.

Juventus were initially acquitted in an investigation in April 2022 which concerned “revenues from player registration rights” between 2019 and 2021 and it was reopened in December 2022.

In addition, Juve published an annual loss of £220m for last season which was a record-breaking fee in the history of the club.

The Turin-based club has denied any wrongdoing and is expected to appeal the decision to CONI (Italian Olympic Committee). The club said its accounting was in line with industry standards.