“I've never met mafia bosses and the referral from the federal prosecutor's office is unacceptable and the result of a partial and preconceived reading towards Juventus and does not respond to the logic of justice. I will defend myself and defend Juve's good name." The reaction of the president of Juve, Andrea Agnelli, is furious for the referral of him together with three employees of the Juventus club by the Prosecutor of the Italian Football Federation for alleged relations with mafia bosses infiltrated in the ultras groups.
After recalling that Juventus representatives collaborated, as witnesses and not as defendants, with the ordinary judiciary of the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office in an investigation into organized crime, Agnelli said that, if the position of some characters in the organized groups of Juventus fans met at the time as such has changed to the point of making them accused of the mafia, Juve could not have imagined the developments of such a situation because there had been no reports from the authorities.
Now Juve risks a fine and perhaps the temporary disqualification of the president if he is found guilty, but Agnelli has flatly ruled out both resignation and a change of guard at the helm of the Juventus club.
His cousin John Elkann, number one of Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family who is the majority shareholder of Juventus, intervened in support of Andrea Agnelli: Elkann defended Andrea Agnelli's work and confirmed that he will remain as president of the black and white club.
