The secret document of 20 million euros that compromises Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo

The secret document of 20 million euros that compromises Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

 

Almost a year ago, at the end of November 2021 , the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the opening of an investigation against Juventus for possible accounting fraud . Those investigated (and already charged ) in this possible plot are the president Andrea Agnelli , the vice president Pavel Nedved, the former sports director Fabio Paratici – who is no longer at the club – and three more directors of the Italian entity. In fact, just yesterday a judge prevented their arrests .

The authorities compiled information from the last three balance sheets because there are indications of a crime due to “false communications from listed companies and the issuance of invoices for non-existent operations” . Months later, according to the accusation of the FIGC Prosecutor’s Office and documents leaked by ‘Calcio e Finanza’ in Italy, alleged fictitious capital gains of 60.3 million were disclosed . That is, the market values ​​of players were inflated to sell them at a higher price. The Prosecutor’s Office requested fines, but not the descent of the club.

Well, yesterday the crimes for which Agnelli, Nedved and Paratici, among others, have been charged ( false corporate communication, false communication directed at the market, hindering the exercise of the powers of public surveillance, manipulation and use of invoices) were made public. for non-existent operations ), and today the Gazzetta dello Sport publishes that the investigators also found a secret document in which Cristiano Ronaldo would be involved.

In said document, signed by Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo himself, the club promised to pay its former striker a total of 20 million euros despite announcing salary adjustments during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. and even if he ended up leaving the club in the following seasons. A crisis that paralyzed the entire world and that put many football clubs in a difficult situation, which had to carry out several cuts so that the impact of the stoppage of competitions was as painless as possible.

Payments in ‘B’ to more players?

The investigation, according to the Italian newspaper, now focuses on alleged private documents that the club would have signed with the members of the first team during the year 2020 , thus trying to demonstrate that the Juventus players did not actually give up the salaries of four months during the COVID-19 lockdown from March 2020, but received ‘B’ payments for three months after signing these secret agreements .

The reference to a “document that theoretically should not have existed” arose from the wiretapping of Juventus managers in December last year and, according to the Gazzetta , the investigators would now have found this document signed by Ronaldo and the club . A payment agreed by the two parties that, as expected, does not appear registered in Juventus’ financial accounts in that year. The Turin Prosecutor would have asked Cristiano about his position on the matter after the information brought to light, but the Portuguese will not speak at the moment unless he is formally summoned to trial.

The Prosecutor’s Office already took it for granted in March that during the four months of the start of the pandemic, Juventus deferred payments and there was talk of the practice of keeping cards outside the venue that would disappear once the guarantee function had been exhausted. It was further believed that the papers on Cristiano Ronaldo and his payments, which allowed Juve to record a cost reduction in the financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21, had been destroyed.

Now it seems that this has not been the case and that there is evidence that said document existed , so we will have to be attentive in the coming weeks to the events of an investigation that is still ongoing and that maintains one of the greats of Serie A on high alert.

Culled from Marca.