Ex Juventus chief Andrea Agnelli used West Ham as a smokescreen with comments last year as dark clouds gather over the Turin club.
Agnelli stood down from his role as Juventus president amid much controversy after a trophy-laden decade at the club.
Some Hammers fans may remember last year that Agnelli claimed West Ham were at risk of insolvency.
Agnelli name checked West Ham to the world’s press when discussing the crippling financial crisis caused by the global pandemic.
“Two topics that I would like to introduce before leaving room for questions,” Agnelli said last year (Calcio Mercato).
“The board has estimated the effects of the pandemic over the three-year period at €320m (£281.5m), based on this the guidelines for the capital increase up to €400m (£352m), have been defined.
“They estimate the need for liquidity within the system to be €8.5 billion (£7.48bn). It is estimated that 30-40% will be managed by capital increases, 15-20% are at risk of insolvency. I am thinking of Barcelona, Inter, West Ham, Porto.”
The comments drew criticism from West Ham circles with fans accusing Agnelli of being – among other things – ‘clueless’.
Now it seems ex Juventus chief Agnelli used West Ham as a smokescreen with his comments as dark clouds gather over the Turin club.
It seems Agnelli may have been trying to deflect attention or scaremonger other clubs into backing those controversial European Super League plans.
Ex Juventus chief Andrea Agnelli used West Ham as a smokescreen with comments as dark clouds gather over Turin club
Because while West Ham have just announced record turnover and a pre-tax profit, Juventus are crumbling financially.
So much so that an estimated £900m has been wiped off Juve’s £1.6bn value. That leaves it down at just over £600m – around £100m less than the £700m Daniel Kretinsky’s investment values West Ham at.
BBC Sport reports that 2023 could be a very bleak period in the history of Juve with the club facing several investigations from public prosecutors in Turin, the Italian Federal Council as well as Uefa.
On 28 October 2022 the full Juventus board of directors resigned, with president Agnelli and vice-president Pavel Nedved among its 10 members. After 12 years and nine consecutive league titles, five Italian Cups, five Italian Supercups and five consecutive women’s league titles, the most successful Juventus president ever was forced to step down.
“During his tenure, the club also inaugurated the JStadium, the JMedical and the JMuseum, all state-of-the-art assets. You cannot say he was not successful,” BBC Sport reports.
“But their lack of silverware in Europe, marked by Champions League final defeats in 2015 and 2017, and the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo in August 2018, pushed Juventus towards a ravine which opened up completely as Covid broke out.
“In September 2018, shortly after announcing Ronaldo, Juventus were worth 1.7bn euro. Today, despite 300m and 400m-euro recapitalisations in December 2019 and December 2021, the club is worth only 700m euro. The reason is a mix of exaggerated ambition and imponderable events.
“Juventus face legal and sporting allegations for financial irregularities and false accounting, put in place to embellish their books, heavily hit by the pandemic. Being listed on the stock exchange, Juventus are obliged to show all their financial operations, something the investigating authorities claim they didn’t do.”
The full, shocking state of affairs at Juve is detailed in this fascinating BBC Sport report.
And it very much seems Agnelli was using the old smoke and mirrors to hide Juve’s impending problems from the world when he made those comments about the likes of West Ham last year.
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