Juventus handed 15-point penalty for irregularities

Serie A giants drop down from third to 10th place over alleged false accounting

From left: Former Juventus football director Federico Cherubini, vice-president Pavel Nedved and director Maurizio Arrivabene. AFP

Serie A giants Juventus were hit with a massive 15-point penalty for alleged false accounting on Friday following an appeal hearing at the Italian football federation.

The FIGC accused Juve of using transfers to artificially boost their balance sheet. The points sanction is a huge blow to Juve whose chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League are now greatly compromised.

Juve drop down from third to 10th place on just 22 points, 15 from the top four positions in Italy's top flight.

The club said it will appeal the decision to Italy’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee.

Also, former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and former club CEO Maurizio Arrivabene were both banned for two years from football activities and more bans were handed out for nine other members of Juve’s staff or former board, which resigned en masse in November following an investigation by Turin public prosecutors into alleged false bookkeeping.

Missing out on Europe's top club competition would be a further blow to the club's accounts which last season were nearly €239 million in the red.

Juve's current sporting director Federico Cherubini was also banned for 16 months, another serious punishment which Juve said in a statement they would appeal. Also, there was an eight-month ban for former vice-president and playing icon Pavel Nedved.

The ruling reversed a previous decision in April to clear Juventus, 10 other clubs and their executives of wrongdoing.

Authorities had reopened the case and requested the partial cancellation of the initial decision so they could assess new documents collected by public prosecutors in the city of Turin who are investigating the finances of Juventus.

The court confirmed the acquittal of eight other clubs, including Serie A's Sampdoria and Empoli, and their directors, for whom prosecutors had also wanted to reopen the case.