The Italian court ruled that Juventus will have to pay 9,774,166.66 euros, plus interest, to Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, which is equivalent to the net amount he should have received from taxes and contributions.

The decision in favor of Cristiano Ronaldo, who filed an appeal against Juventus, was taken by judges Gianroberto Villa, Roberto Sacchi and Leandro Cantamessa and they confirmed the existing strong evidence that the Torino club had resorted to some “salary maneuvers” in the form of payment to “CR7”, which had never received the money in question. .

The Portuguese footballer achieved a victory that will have heavy costs in terms of the budget of Juventus, which in previous years did not reserve any money in case of the risk of an unfavorable judicial decision.

The topic of discussion was the agreement that Juventus reached with several of its players in 2020, the year of Covid-19, to mitigate the situation resulting from the pandemic.

In the event of an agreement with the Portuguese star, a payment of approximately 20 million euros was stipulated, but the arbitration court of the Italian Football Federation reduced the amount by half.

What is known as the “secret message” from Cristiano in Italy, a document that Juventus hid at the time, revealed the Torino club’s agreement with the Portuguese, in which it committed to paying 19.8 million euros to Ronaldo.

Juventus claimed that it had agreed to reduce the salaries of its players to alleviate the economic situation caused by the pandemic, but the public prosecutor’s office discovered, partly thanks to this “secret letter”, that the agreement was not a waiver of salary, but rather a postponement of payment for three of the four agreed upon months. (From March to June 2020).

The amount is not included in that year's fiscal year, which is why the Attorney General's Office considers it a tax fraud crime.