Tutti squalificati. Per almeno un mese. In questo campionato. Forse già a breve. E sì, lo so, non è una notizia di poco conto. I media italiani tremano al pensiero di darla, ma forse è il caso di non fare gli schizzinosi: almeno si evitano svenimenti come per il -15 (1. segue) pic.twitter.com/435Kn6HUS5— Paolo Ziliani (@ZZiliani) January 24, 2023 Juve scandal fallout continues: McKennie is included in a list of players who allegedly agreed to be paid off the books to make the club's finances look better. Faces a ban of at least 30 days if the allegations are true.
I think it's generally pretty outdated by now. I had the good fortune to backpack around the UK with a friend in one summer in college, going to date myself, but that was 20 years ago, and there good food options just about everywhere I remember going, certainly in all the bigger cities.
Well looking on the bright side, he is willing to help the club. Seriously though, Juve is a mess, hope he can get out soon, and I've generally enjoyed his time there.
Punishing the players for something the club probably told them all was above board and would just "help out the club" would be wild, but maybe there are details that haven't been revealed yet
I hope you are right, and they were at least reporting it as tax income, otherwise it looks less good for the players.
On the reddit /r/soccer board, an Italian reddit user posted this tl;dr translation of the tweet thread: Juventus allegedly signed an agreement with players stating that 3 out of the 4 months of renounced wages (covid hit, early 2020) would be paid off balance sheet, spread over time Juventus captain Chiellini allegedly told the team not to share this detail with the media, ... and said whatsapp message was acquired as proof 23 + 17 players (across two seasons, including coach Sarri) could be banned for at least 30 days due to accepting being paid off balance sheet. This would apply also to players (and coach Sarri) who are not at Juventus anymore Juventus could be sanctioned with further point deductions and fines ranging from 1 to 3 times the amount in question. CR7 deferred wages alone are worth €19.6m further sanctions could include automatic relegation and revocation of titles (scudetto of 2019-20) Based on this, and assuming Wes was paying taxes on his wages as @aeschylusdanceparty pointed out, I would imagine the only person who would actually face a ban is Chiellini, who has a Masters of Business and would likely know that paying wages off the book for a publicly traded company is a HUGE no-no. But I bet Wes and the rest just get a paltry fine... Very likely that more point deductions are coming though, especially since it's alleged that Agnelli and several members of the board are accused of doing this as well, and they would DEFINITELY known this is illegal.
I do sometimes wonder how much all our guys in London hang out with each other (Pulisic, Jedi, Ream, Richards, and Turner).
A player signing a multi-million dollar contract with the advice of agent's and lawyer's has his own duty to ensure the contract isn't violating law or policy.
All players are equally responsible for the contracts that they sign. They are advised by agents and lawyers who should advise them of the risks, but they have ultimate responsibility for any illegal conduct.
Eh, even without any new details these guys are adults and should have known something wasn't right here. Now with that being said, the club and officials deserve the worst punishment, but the players shouldn't get off scot free.
It is amazing to me how willing folks are to jeopardize their own futures to save a few bucks or "help someone out." No idea what Wes' ultimate actions look like here, but you'd think after watching folks from Messi to Neymar to Ronaldo to Maradonna you'd learn your lesson. I guess most figure the punishment won't be too onerous - and most of the time they're right. But still, a huge enterprise the size of Juve wants to pay you cash off the books, if you don't stop and go "huh?" you're really a rube. I'm hoping/assuming these payments were "official" but didn't hit Juve's "player salary" line-item, or whatever they needed to keep low, but if it was really 100% off the books, that's bonkers.
Un’operazione gravemente illecita, siglata per tutti dal presidente #Agnelli e dal capitano #Chiellini, portata avanti al di fuori dell’ambito federale con scritture private controfirmate da agenti, nascoste in studi legali e notarili e ritrovate però dagli inquirenti (3. segue)— Paolo Ziliani (@ZZiliani) January 24, 2023 In the thread, Twitter's translate feature makes it sound like agents counter-signed this agreement, so either this is criminal collusion and the players do deserve bans and fines, or the club failed to adequately explain the illegality of the agreement, and IMO the players (and subsequently agents and lawyers) deserve fines, but not play-time bans.
By necessity some must leave financial decisions to their legal reps and agent. Not sure if that's what happened here but many many footballers excel at only one thing (sport) and their off field choices tend to reveal that I'm curious whether agreeing to this scheme was tied to standing within the club and chances at playing time. Was it offered selectively? Did some refuse and face negative consequences? Were players led to believe everyone was in on the arrangement? Until I know more it's kinda hard to blame Wes or any of the guys who caved.
I don't disagree with you, but Wes was like 23 years old at the time. In my experience (and I have kids in that age group), people that age don't always make the most sound or informed decisions. He may well have figured that if all the older/more experienced players were doing it, and the team captain was telling them to do it, it was ok to do. I suppose his agent, parents, lawyers, or someone could have offered him advice, but I'm not shocked that someone at Wes' age, with at best a high school education, wouldn't have realized how stupid/wrong this was.
No, not at all, but I think that punishing them by banning them from playing is an extreme step, especially those players who are no longer at Juve. I get that if FIFA/UEFA don't set a precedent others will do this same thing and consider any fines a "tax", but you'd have to prove to me that the players knew what they were doing was illegal and that this couldn't be excused by COVID weirdness if reports got out to make me think that a month-long match ban is justified. In my mind, a points deduction for Juve (and maybe even a continental competition ban) and large fines for all involved is enough of a punishment to discourage other clubs from doing this in the future.
To me, it sounds like the scheme wasn't "we want to pay you off the books", but rather, that we want you to stop taking your salary while we aren't playing, and we will repay it to you by adding on a little bit in each week's payment once we resume play, and that little payment will be off the books. This was done to prevent Juve from having a massive loss on their books from paying wages to players / staff while the league paused play, but I'm not sure... its so hard to follow legal issues through Google translate.
It also sounds way more nuanced than "here's an envelope, go deposit this in Jersey next time you're traveling" so my guess is it won't reflect that badly on the players. That said, if pros like Wes are not vetting everything through responsible advisors after reading the past 20 years of football tax headlines, that's on them. I got kids in that age range too, and they run their barrista withholding choices by me, ffs.
Also, and I think this went without saying to most posters here, Juve is ********ed in terms of budget. The reporter claims that the fines Juve will have to pay for all 23 players is 1-to-3 times the amount they paid off the books. For CR7, that was 19.8m euros, so the club could be on the hook for 59.4m euros... Add on to that more point deductions causing them to miss out on European competition (to say nothing about the potential threat of relegation), and Juve is gonna take an unprecedented financial hit. edit: 23 players not 27 lol
Really??? A 30 day ban is what, 3 or 4 matches. Same punishment you'd get for a dangerous play red card. Hardly "extreme".
Wes’ big problem is to gain too much weight that will make him lazy and heavy on the field. So any activity burns calories is good one. LOL. Of course, English stuff (you call those food? Damn ass) that can stuff his stomach, but London is probably easy to find real food.
assuming the ban started today, they'd be missing 7 matches: 4 league matches, at least 1 cup match, and both Europa league matches vs Nantes. But it's more likely that it'll go into effect in the next couple of days, which could bring the total number of league matches to 5. It'd have to be a hell of a red-card to get an 8 match ban...