By Enitan Abdultawab

Italy’s most successful club, Juventus, is currently in turmoil, with the club embroiled in one scandal or another.

Historically, Juventus is one of the world’s most powerful clubs. Also known as the Old Lady, Juventus is Serie A’s most successful club and boasts world-class footballers such as Andre Pirlo, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Leonardo Bonucci, Carlos Tevez, Giorgio Chiellini, and many others.

However, the team have had a departure from what it used to be and has suffered both sporting and managerial setbacks that have plunged it deep into troubled waters.

Let’s take a look at the thread of the team’s troubles.

Chiesa injury

When he was at his best, Federico Chiesa was one of the world’s brightest wingers. Known for his excellent dribbling and electric pace, Chiesa was touted to be snapped up by the bigger clubs in the world, but injury scared a lot of teams away. Injuries kept Chiesa away from the 21/22 season, and he has suffered recurring injury issues ever since.

Pogba’s extortion case

Juventus had to deal with Pogba’s extortion case, which included the player, his brother Matthias, and another fellow player who played for French fourth-division side Belforth. The police had arrested Mathias Pogba after the Juventus player claimed he was extorted by his brother.

Pogba’s season-ending injury

Last season, Pogba could not live up to the hype he had in 2016 when he left the club. The midfielder had returned to Juventus on a free transfer amidst injury records. At Juventus, Pogba missed out on a full season, recovered, played a few matches, and returned to the sidelines once again.

Plusvalenza case

Juventus was unfortunate to have been the primary scapegoat in Italy’s reopening of the Plusvalenza case, which literally translates as “capital gains”. The team was alleged to have inflated players’ transfer fees while trading them to other clubs. Consequently, the club’s chairman was banned, and other executives were suspended. In addition, a number of executives, including former player Paul Nedved, resigned.

Points docked and returned

Stemming from the Plusvalenza saga, Juventus had to deal with a reduction of 15 points from their league points as a punishment. In January, with 20 games left to play this season, Juve were third in Serie A with 37 points, 10 behind leaders Napoli. The deduction put them in 10th place, outside the qualifying spots for lucrative European competition.

However, the points were reversed on the 20th of April, and Juventus found themselves in third place from seventh, two points away from Lazio’s second.

Points docked again

On May 22, Juventus suffered another setback. The team was relegated to a distant 7th place from 3rd place as they lost a huge 10 points again. The point reduction was on the grounds of the Plusvalenza saga, which was revisited once more.

Withdrawal from Super League

Following the Plusvalenza saga, managerial discord, and sporting woes, Juventus pulled out of the launch of the Super League, which was formulated by Europe’s top clubs. The club sent formal notes to Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Europa Conference League expulsion

Juventus’ woes continued as the club was banned from European football for one year. The team was not allowed to play in the UEFA Conference League after finishing 7th in the league table on account of financial fair play rules. The club was also fined £17.14 million.

Pogba’s doping allegations

Pogba has been provisionally suspended by the Italian anti-doping tribunal (NADO Italia), and his agent, Rafaela Pimenta, has said that they await “counter-analysis” to see if the B sample confirms the presence of the banned substance in the Frenchman’s system. If found guilty, the player might be banned for four years.

Bonucci’s lawsuit

The latest of Juventus’ woes is club legend Bonucci’s lawsuit against the club. The defender alleged that the club’s decision to freeze him out was humiliating,’ as he was not given enough explanation.

“It’s a decision that’s been a long time coming and is due to the fact that I’ve read and heard a lot of things that aren’t true.”

“I didn’t have any discussion with the club on that date, nor did I with the coach (Massimiliano Allegri), who called me into his office at the end of March… He told me in his way that I should quit at the end of June because I wanted to be a coach, so I needed to speed things up.”

It remains to be seen if Juventus will cope on and off the pitch amidst and all the woes.