MILAN (Reuters) – A false accounting case against Juventus could be shifted from the soccer club’s home city of Turin to either Milan or Rome at the request of defence lawyers, judicial and legal sources said on Wednesday.
Judge Marco Picco has asked Italy’s top court to decide on the request in a move that will slow down proceedings.
The judge held a first hearing behind closed doors in March to start to examine whether former Juventus Chairman Andrea Agnelli, 11 other people and the club itself should face trial over allegations of false accounting at Italy’s most successful soccer team.
Lawyers for the defendants argued that the case should be transferred to Milan, where the club is listed on the stock market, or Rome while local prosecutors want to keep it in Turin.
Italy’s highest court is not bound make a decision in any specific time frame and legal and judicial sources say it could take months.
A transfer to another venue would result in a considerable delay to the proceedings, because the case files, according to Italian law, would have to be sent to the new city’s prosecutors and the process move back a few steps.
If the case stays in Turin, the next hearing will not be until Oct. 26.
Last December, prosecutors requested that the defendants face trial after investigating the club’s accounting and statements made to financial markets in three recent years.
The Turin criminal investigation has triggered a separate inquiry by Italy’s soccer authorities which initially resulted in a 15-point deduction for Juventus this season. That was overturned pending a new hearing by the soccer authorities.
Juventus have denied wrongdoing and said their accounting is in line with industry standards.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Keith Weir and Ed Osmond)
