Juventus president Andrea Agnelli has hit out at the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in the wake of the match-fixing scandal which is threatening to engulf the club.
Coach Antonio Conte, who is accused of failing to report alleged match-fixing involving Siena when he managed them in the 2010-11 Serie B season, is facing a long ban from football after a plea deal was rejected this week.
Siena’s plea bargain deal was accepted, meaning they will start the new Serie A season with a six-point deduction, but Conte’s proposal – which would have seen him serve a three-month suspension and pay a fine of €200,000 – was turned down.
He will now have to either submit a new offer or face a sports tribunal, with either option likely to lead to a longer ban.
Juve players Simone Pepe and Leonardo Bonucci will also appear in front of the committee and Agnelli has voiced his support for the trio, adding they have the full support of the Bianconeri.
In a statement on the club’s official website, Agnelli said: “The decision taken this week by the FIGC’s disciplinary committee, which opposed a plea bargain that had already been considered and approved by the federal prosecutor, is testimony to the complete inadequacy of the sporting justice system and the federation within which it operates.
“Once again, I detect an inability to interpret the requirements of today’s top-level professional game.
“Having chosen to make a plea bargain in order to limit the damage of an antiquated and contradictory system of sporting justice, one is confronted with a dictatorial system that deprives the club and its employees of any right to defend themselves and their honour.
“It is the respectability of individuals that is being put in danger and therefore it is up to them to have the final say on the decisions to be made, in the knowledge that Juventus will support them at every level of the judicial system.”
The Serie B matches involved in the charges were between Novara and Siena in May 2011, which ended 2-2, and between Albinoleffe and Siena in the same month which ended in a 1-0 defeat for Siena.