Outgoing Juventus Chairman Andrea Agnelli has urged European football to push for change, with the Italian fearful of the Premier League prizing away all of Europe’s stars, thereby ‘marginalising’ surrounding competitions.
Agnelli, who could face trial over allegations of false accounting at Juventus, was famously one of the architects of the failed attempt to set up the breakaway European Super League in 2021.
‘I believed and still believe that European soccer needs structural reforms to tackle the future,’ Agnelli said Wednesday as he stepped down from his role.
Outgoing Juventus chief Andrea Agnelli had some strong opinions in his last press conference
‘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.’
The polarizing Italian has chaired Juventus since 2010 but resigned after prosecutors in Turin 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.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday before sporting authorities on its transfer dealings, which could overturn a previously ruling that cleared it of wrongdoing.
Agnelli believes the Premier League will imminently cause ‘inexorable decline’ around Europe
The Serie A giant 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.
Agnelli is part of the family that founded carmaker Fiat, now part of the Stellantis group, which has owned Juventus for a century.
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.
The polarizing Italian was one of the main architects of the failed European Super League in ’21
The outgoing chief 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, namely restoring 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.
Agnelli was criticised for his part and was an unpopular figure in England & some parts of Italy
