President Andrea Agnelli wrote a letter to Juventus shareholders outlining a five-point plan for getting the club back to financial sustainability and sporting credibility on the field after record losses.
The Bianconeri set a new all-time Serie A record by posting losses of €254.3m for the financial year ending June 2022.
This was their fifth consecutive year of losses, but the number of the deficit has ballooned from 419m in 2017-18 to €40m in 2018-19, then €90m in 2019-20 and €210m last year.
Agnelli wrote an open letter to Juventus shareholders in which he outlined the five-point plan to get them back on track, both on and off the field.
The first ‘challenge the whole of Juventus will be called to address’ in this list is finding that economic-financial balance that has been lost.
Their second is management, trying to become a more global brand and attract the younger generations.
The third is sport, a necessary point considering last season was the first in a decade to end without a single piece of silverware.
Agnelli’s fourth pillar is ESG reinforcing commitment in environmentally friendly and sustainable business practices.
The fifth, and this is a big one, is Political, as Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona have still not given up their dreams of creating a European Super League.
“Currently, the European Court of Justice is again called upon to rule on our industry, this time to verify whether the current governance structure of European football is compatible with EU law. The Court will likely deliver its judgement during the current season and it will be extremely relevant for all stakeholders.
Whatever the outcome, Juventus has been and will always be an active player in proposing solutions to the problems of our industry, as it cares about its long-term sustainability.”
Here is the full open letter.
Dear Shareholders,
After the unimaginable Covid storm – over 7 billion in cumulative losses in the industry between 2019 and 2021 – the 21-22 financial year should be the last year in which we record direct impacts due to the pandemic (suffice it to recall, by way of example, that last year we had a stadium utilisation rate of less than 70%). It was therefore necessary to provide the club with a new roadmap, approved by the Board of Directors in June of this year, with the aim of ensuring Juventus’ development while maintaining its focus on sports performance.
The road to economic recovery has therefore already been embarked upon by the club, but it is a very demanding step-by-step path, appearing at the end of the three seasons marked by the pandemic and that has been through difficult times. From an economic-financial point of view, the 2021-22 financial statements, with a loss on the income statement of 254 million euros, was certainly the gloomiest moment.
As soon as the external context allowed it, Juventus therefore drew up a new three-year plan (2022- 25) in the awareness that this three-year period that has just ended does not represent the end of an expansive path that was wiped out by the pandemic. On the contrary, it is the starting point of a new journey made above all of football, innovation and responsibility towards the new needs that society demands.
The ideal point of contact between the pre- and post-pandemic Juventus are the Women, synonymous with diversity and inclusiveness but at the same time faithful to the Bianconeri tradition – the extraordinary successes at national level (5th consecutive Scudetto, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa) and the incredible Champions League nights at the Allianz Stadium still shine in our eyes.
The plan is based on five solid pillars, five challenges the whole of Juventus will be called to address both on and off the pitch.
1. Financial: it is clear to everyone, and especially to us, that the economic-financial balance, that we lost during the pandemic years, must return to drive the club’s strategic choices. The extraordinary capital increase transaction was the initial step on this path, which must now continue with credibility and conviction.
2. Management: Juventus’ ambition is to guarantee operational excellence in every activity in support of a brand development aspiring to become attractive to the younger generations (Z and Alpha) and aiming to become truly global.
3. Sport: it is our core business and always will be. Juventus means competing at a high level for victory, every day and in every competition. Victory is a goal to which Juventus naturally aspires and every effort of all the men and women of Juventus will be directed towards victory, starting from the ongoing season.
4. ESG: for almost ten years the Club has been committed to the issue of sustainability, with projects and proper reporting. Today we reinforce this commitment by including this issue fully in our business model. A promise to the new generations, which we intend to keep.
5. Political: our industry has been inhibited by structural problems for too long, which if not addressed and solved collectively risk jeopardising the European future of the most beautiful sport in the world. Here are some of them:
The financial unsustainability for clubs, despite historic revenue growth.
The polarisation – within European domestic leagues of all sizes, with a small number of clubs always winning, and between European leagues in which the English Premier League is the world’s top football league, unapproachable for any other domestic league. As a result, continental clubs need access to the Champions League as the only leverage to limit their loss of ground to English clubs – increasing economic and sporting risks.
Finally, younger generations are losing interest and are less involved in sport: according to some studies, in America, a historic forerunner of trends and fashions, 39% of Generation Z say they never follow live sporting events, compared to 28% of adults and only 20% of Millennials.
Although many analysts and commentators agree on the current negative context, few solutions have been presented by football stakeholders. And those being discussed have almost always met with stagnating conservatism, only overcome by exogenous events, such as the Bosman ruling in the 1990s.
Currently, the European Court of Justice is again called upon to rule on our industry, this time to verify whether the current governance structure of European football is compatible with EU law. The Court will likely deliver its judgement during the current season and it will be extremely relevant for all stakeholders.
Whatever the outcome, Juventus has been and will always be an active player in proposing solutions to the problems of our industry, as it cares about its long-term sustainability. The overall goal is to put fans and footballers, the souls of the most beautiful sport in the world, back at the centre of this industry, whose throbbing heart is in the European Union. This is to be achieved by ensuring that investors, as represented by the clubs, are legitimately represented within governance and thereby establishing the right link between entrepreneurial risk and economic management control. The positive consequences of possible reforms will be to provide grassroots sport, through the federations, with the resources it deserves, distributed transparently through entities with clearly defined roles. Reforms, in any context, can only be achieved through listening and constructive dialogue with all stakeholders. Juventus wants to be an active part of that dialogue.
Criticism and disappointment, which have become a routine matter in football, are useful for growth and should not be overlooked, and will not be. The path to credibility, which I have just outlined to you, will be challenging but will deliver tangible results on and off the pitch. Juventus has never stopped and, with the stable support for almost a century of a major shareholder and its hundreds of millions of fans around the world, intends to write new winning chapters of its history.
Until the end…
Andrea Agnelli
