Juventus shares fall after board resigns

Italy’s Agnelli family has moved quickly to fill the gap at the top of Juventus, after the chair and entire board of the football club resigned late on Monday because of an accounting problem related to player salaries.

Exor, the holding company through which the family controls Juventus, said on Tuesday that it would nominate Gianluca Ferrero, a corporate adviser and auditor as chair, replacing Andrea Agnelli.

In a statement, Exor said that Ferrero had “the required technical competencies, as well as a genuine passion for the bianconero club”.

Shares in the club fell 6 per cent in early trading on Tuesday in Milan, stretching their decline for the year to nearly 24 per cent.

The Juventus board announced on Monday evening that it would resign because of “pending legal and technical/accounting matters”. After investigations by the public prosecutor’s office in Turin and the Italian market regulator, Consob, Juventus has had to change the way in which it has accounted for player bonuses for the financial years ending June 2020 and June 2021.

Juventus is one of Italy’s oldest and most successful football clubs, having won the league title a record 36 times, most recently in 2020.

Agnelli was one of the main movers behind the controversial idea of a European super league that would give guaranteed places to the continent’s leading clubs.