The former president of Juventus, the Italian Andrea Agnellisaid goodbye to the Turin club this Monday, after the collective resignation of the entire board of directors, with an open letter addressed to fans and workers in which he recalled his twelve years in office, appealed to the greatness of the black and white team and in which recognized the complicated situation that the entity is going through.
The recent tax investigations to which ‘Juve’ has been subjected for two economic maneuvers have been the reason why the entire ‘Vecchia Signora’ board of directors resigned this Monday after a meeting, including vice-president Pavel Nedved and the CEO Maurizio Arrivabene.
However, Arrivabene will maintain his position until the formation of a new board of directors, a task for which Mauricio Scanavino, a trusted man of John ElkannAgnelli’s cousin, chairman of Ferrari and CEO of Exor, a Dutch company controlled by the Agnellis.
The first of these illegal economic maneuvers refers to to an alleged fictitious and unreal inflation of the market prices of the first team players to get more profit in its subsequent sale.
The second is related to the financial year of 2020, when due to the socioeconomic situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘Juve’ agreed to postpone payments to certain players, including the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldowhich were not included in the fiscal year of that year, a maneuver considered illegal by the Turin Prosecutor’s Office and which, if definitively proven, may lead to sanctions on those involved, including Agnelli and a large part of his board directive.
After the earthquake caused by his resignation, Agnelli, the fourth with that surname to preside over Juventus, said goodbye with an emotional open letter.
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“Play for Juventus, work for Juventus; one objective: to win”, begins the letter.
“Anyone who has the privilege of wearing the black and white jersey knows this. Those who work in teams know that hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard. Juventus is one of the biggest clubs in the world and anyone who works or plays there knows that the result is the result of the work of the entire team”, he continues, before appealing to the greatness of the club and recalling the League finals in Champions against Real Madrid and Barcelona, both conquered by the Spanish teams.
“We are used to winning by history and by DNA. Since 2010 we honor our history achieving extraordinary results: the stadium, nine consecutive men’s championships, the first in Italy to have a Netflix and Amazon Prime series, the medical center, five consecutive women’s championships. And again, the deal with Volkswagen (few know), the finals in Berlin and Cardiff (our great regret), the deal with Adidas, the Next Gen Italian Cup, the first club to represent the clubs on the Executive Committee from UEFA, the museum and much more”, he says.
When the team is not compact, it fails. Both in the field and in the offices
“Hours, days, nights, months and seasons with the aim of always improving in the face of decisive moments. Each one of us knows how to remember the moment before going out onto the field: exit the locker room and turn right, about twenty steps down with a grate in the middle, another ten steps up and you’re there: “stage fright”, That’s when you know you have the whole team with you, the impossible becomes feasible. Bernabeu, Old Trafford, Allianz Arena, Westfallen Stadium, San Siro, Georgios Karaiskakīs, Celtic Park, Camp Nou: wherever we went and when the team was compact we feared no one”.
“When the team is not compact, it leaves its side to the opponents and this can be fatal. At that moment you have to be lucid and contain the damage: We are facing a delicate moment from a corporate point of view and compactness has failedeither. Better to leave everyone together, giving the possibility to a new formation to turn that game around ”.
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“I will continue to imagine and work for a better football, supported by a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: “And those who were seen dancing were considered crazy by those who could not hear the music.”
“Remember, we will recognize each other at a glance: we are from Juve! Until the end… Andrea”.
Agnelli thus puts an end to twelve years in office and, in principle, to the union of his last name with Juventus. He was the fourth Agnelli to preside over the club, after his grandfather Edoardo, his uncle Gianni and his father Umberto. The names of the rest of the directors who have resigned: Laurence Debroux, Massimo Della Ragione, Katryn Fink, Daniela Marilungo, Francesco Roncaglio, Giorgio Tacchia and Suzanne Keywood.
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