Juventus FC’s Season Make A Mockery Of Italian Soccer

Shortly before halftime at the Allianz Stadium Olivier Giroud did as he has done so often and rose tallest in the box as a cross came in from the right wing.

The Frenchman’s powerful header into the net ensured it would be another season of Champions League soccer for visitors AC Milan.

For hosts Juventus the game was anticlimactic its fate was decided the week before with a 4-1 defeat at Empoli.

The meek surrender of the league’s once all-powerful team was only part of the story, however.

On the day of the game without a ball being kicked the team had tumbled six places down the table, the result of a ten-point punishment handed by a court concerning allegations about the club’s transfer dealings.

What made the latest decision so galling for the Bianconeri was that it came after a 15-point penalty awarded in January was revoked in April.

This was just the latest episode in a series of court judgments and appeals that have seen the club buffeted up and down the table.

How Juventus folded against Empoli seemed to show, the external factors had taken their toll.

“It has been just torture,” the usually level-headed Maximiliano Allegri told the media post-game

“I wish they’d have just told us two months ago what the penalty was and let us know if we were going to be stabbed or poisoned because at least we’d know.”

The Juventus manager was quick to point out that were the club to be judged purely on results it would have comfortably qualified for the Champions League.

“I am disappointed tonight because it was an opportunity, but I also cannot reproach the team for anything, because it has been a continual chasing down of situations.

“I want to point out one thing: Juventus are second in the table, we earned that on the field. We accept everything, but I really hope this just gets sorted out once and for all.

“It’s a steady drip, drip, drip, let them just decide where they want Juventus to be, tell us and resolve the problem.

“It is a lack of respect towards people who are working, players and coaches. I am not telling them what to decide, I just ask them to decide once and for all. It’s incredible. Just incredible. Enough is enough.”

It would be interesting to know how Allegri feels about the possibility of Juventus appealing this latest decision which the club’s initial statement indicated it might.

A successful judgment could throw the team back into a world of uncertainty.

Understandably, in the wake of both defeat and the penalty, Allegri was downbeat on the prospects for next season.

“We need to talk to the club and see where we are playing,” he continued, “I don’t know if they will even allow us to play in the Europa League, we’ll have to wait and see. Obviously, if you are out of all competition, you have to make one plan.

“We cannot say that Juventus will immediately get back to winning next season, but the important thing is to all be aligned during difficulties. [but] it would be cowardly for me to abandon Juventus at this moment.”

It’s hard to disagree with the thrust of Allegra’s argument whatever you think about Juventus and whether they need to be punished.

An image problem

For Juventus fans seeing their team suffer for off-field misdeeds is nothing new.

Back in 2006, the Bianconeri began life as a second division side in punishment for the Calciopoli scandal-which related to the selection of particular officials for certain teams’ games.

Juventus’s legendary general manager Luciano Moggi was at the center of the scandal which implicated a large number of top-flight teams and rocked Italian soccer.

The complexities of that particular debacle are still fiercely debated by Italian fans and conspiracy theories are rampant about why it was the Bianconeri who were hit more severely than its rivals.

But at least that punishment was definite.

The current situation has put the league in a constant state of flux.

It’s not only Juve who has been unsure, everyone around them has to wonder: is this the final decision?

As bad as Calciopoli was for the reputation of Italian soccer at least the consequences only lasted one season.

It was the low point of relegation that proved to be the catalyst to what would be a remarkable resurrection for Juve.

Ascending from Serie B at the first attempt, the Turin giant soon lay the foundations for what would be one of the greatest periods in its storied history.

In just its fifth season back in the top flight, Juventus were crowned champions and reached the final of the Champions League.

The club would go on to win the next eight titles and reach come within a game of Europe’s biggest prize once more.

Amongst supporters, the narrative has developed that suffering after Calciopoli helped bring about the good times.

“That humiliation quickly became anger and we had the desire to show we were stronger than what had happened to us,” Juve season ticket-holder Maurizio Giovannelli told the BBC in a look back at the scandal several years ago.

“It ultimately gave us the power to build a fantastic winning era which is not yet finished today, to be playing in Champions League finals and become, once again, one of the top five teams in the world.

“The main driving factor for this amazing winning cycle is definitely that sense of humiliation we felt going down to Serie B.”

Allegri might think: If only it were that simple for me.