Agnelli warns on Premier League dominance as he quits Juventus
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[January 18, 2023]
By Giulio Piovaccari
TURIN, Italy (Reuters) -Outgoing Juventus Chairman Andrea Agnelli,
who could face trial over the club's accounting, signed off on
Wednesday with a plea for reform of European soccer to counteract
the power of the English Premier League.
As well as leaving Juventus, Agnelli also said he would step down
from his board roles at carmaker Stellantis and Exor, the Agnelli
family holding company which controls the football club.
Prosecutors in Turin have requested that Agnelli, 11 other people
and the club stand trial over allegations of false accounting.
Juventus, the most successful club in Italian soccer history, has
repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Agnelli has chaired Juventus since 2010 and was one of the
architects of a failed attempt to set up a breakaway European Super
League together with other top clubs in 2021.
"I believed and still believe that European soccer needs structural
reforms to tackle the future," he said.
"Otherwise we are heading for inexorable decline for soccer in
favour of a dominant league, the Premier League, which over a few
years will attract all the European talent and marginalise the
others," he added.
Agnelli is part of the family that founded carmaker Fiat, now part
of the Stellantis group, and which has owned Juventus for a century.
Agnelli said his decision to step down from the other boards was
made in agreement with Exor boss John Elkann, who is a cousin, and
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.
"My desire is to want to face the future with a clean slate, to have
freedom to think and act. And for this reason it feels like a duty
to take a step back from the boards," he said.
Andrea Agnelli retains his role as board member at Giovanni Agnelli
B.V., Exor's controlling shareholders, which groups all descendants
of Fiat founder Giovanni Agnelli.
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Juventus president Andrea Agnelli before the match REUTERS/Massimo
Pinca
NEW BOARD
Gianluca Ferrero, an accountant very close to Elkann, the senior
business figure in the Agnelli family, was appointed on Wednesday as
the new Juventus chairman.
Agnelli handed him a black and white Juventus shirt, with Ferrero's
name and the number one on the back.
The new chairman will head a slimmed-down, five-member board which
will immediately have to address the club's legal troubles.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday before sporting authorities on its
transfer dealings, which could overturn a previously ruling that
cleared it of wrongdoing.
The club is expected to face only a fine if found guilty in that
case. However, soccer authorities are now looking into all documents
collected by general prosecutors in Turin, bringing the risk of new
cases with potentially heavier sanctions.
The new board will also have to restore the club's financial
fortunes, hit by rising costs linked to players' salaries and the
coronavirus pandemic. Juventus booked a 238 million euro ($257
million) loss in the year ended last June.
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; writing by Keith Weir, editing by
Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan)
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