Juventus to pay Ronaldo nearly €10M after arbitration case ruling (UPDATED)

Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo haven’t been a thing for a couple of years now, but even after the two parties went their separate ways in the summer of 2021, there was still one final matter to take care of.

On Wednesday night, we heard the result of that.

According to reports out of Italy, an arbitration tribunal has ruled that Juventus must pay Ronaldo nearly €10 million plus interest in deferred wages that date back to the 2019-20 season. It comes out of the salary maneuvers Juventus and its players took to delay four months worth of salaries amidst the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when the season was suspended during lockdown in Italy and stadiums were closed for the rest of the campaign.

Ronaldo’s legal team had sought €19.5 million in owed wages, according to previous reports, which was the full amount of the money that they claimed they were still owed by Juventus. However, according to Tuttosport, “The court recognized contributory negligence between the parties involved.”

Tuttosport reported last week that Juventus’ camp was confident that they would have a verdict go their way in the case. The two reasons for optimism were that a private agreement between the club and the player had not been signed by Ronaldo, thus making it rather meaningless; then there’s the matter of how Ronaldo’s transfer back to Manchester United in August 2021 happened, with a signed authorization meaning that he no longer has anything in terms of financial benefits to get from the club that he was leaving.

Juve were so confident, Tuttosport says, that the club “in fact thave not set aside the amount among the possible risks, with the approval of the lawyers.”

Clearly, those ruling on the appeal from Ronaldo saw things differently. And now, Juventus must pay one final chunk of money to somebody who broke the norm when it came to how much the club pays in terms of annual player wages.

UPDATE NO. 1: Juventus have released a statement on the ruling. It reads as follows:

This is the statement from the Juventus club regarding the matter: ”Juventus Football Club SpA (“Juventus” or the “Company”), with reference to the arbitration proceedings instituted by former member Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (“Former Member”) against of the Company, announces that today the Arbitration Panel transmitted the award made in the dispute to the parties.

The Arbitrators, with a majority decision, recognized the validity of the agreement to reduce the compensation of the Former Member in the 2020/21 sports season. and noted the absence of any integration agreement concluded between the parties, therefore believing that the so-called “Ronaldo card” has no binding effect ; therefore, they rejected the requests of the Ex Member for the nullity of the reduction agreement compensation and fulfillment of the integration agreement; they also rejected the request for cancellation of the compensation reduction agreement, noting the absence of malice on the part of the Company, whose conduct did not affect the former Member’s willingness to sign the aforementioned reduction agreement; have partially accepted the request formulated in the extreme alternative by the Former Member, ascertaining the pre-contractual liability of Juventus deriving from the failure of the negotiation and condemned the defendant to pay a sum equal to approximately Euro 9.8 million (corresponding to half of the request of the Former Member, equal to approximately Euro 19.6 million).

The Company, also with the support of its lawyers, is examining the decision of the Arbitration Panel, reserving any evaluation and initiative to protect its rights.”