Juventus have issued a statement denying reports that they were fined €2m for wearing kit celebrating two Serie A titles that they were stripped of.
Sky Italia reported that the Turin giants were ordered to pay the money to Nike after selling unauthorised shirts in 2012 with three gold stars despite having been stripped of two Scudetto titles.
In Italy clubs are awarded a gold star by the football authorities rather than in Scotland where anything can be put on a shirt to collect season ticket money from the hard of thinking.
Juve were stripped of two titles in 2012 when they were found guilty of match fixing following the Calciopoli investigations.
Hitting back at the reports Juventus claimed in a club statement that: “In the wake of these stories, the club would like to make it clear that:
– The figure it will have to pay is considerably less than €2 million.
– The figure has nothing to do with the “30 sul campo” initiative, which in fact generated commercial benefit for Nike, as recognised by the arbitration panel.
- Juventus reserves all rights and actions, including an appeal of the arbitration panel’s verdict.
Since the dispute started Juventus have switched their merchandising deal from Nike to Adidas.
Juventus were stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Italian league titles after an investigation uncovered links between Juventus officials and refereeing authorities to influence match appointments.
Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggiana were also caught up in the scandal but after being investigated Juventus were found guilty, stripped of two titles, relegated to Serie B with a points deduction imposed.