Italy's most storied soccer club, Juventus, was hit with a massive 15-point penalty for false accounting Friday following an appeal hearing at the Italian soccer federation. The punishment could eliminate the club’s chances of playing in Europe next season. A record 36-time Italian champion, Juventus was third in Serie A and the penalty drops the Bianconeri to a midtable position — 25 points behind leader Napoli and 12 points from the Champions League places. Juventus said it will appeal the decision to Italy’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee. Also, former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and former club CEO Maurizio Arrivabene were each banned for two years from soccer activities and more bans were handed out for nine other members of Juve’s staff or former board, which resigned en masse in November following an investigation by Turin public prosecutors into alleged false bookkeeping. The longest ban of 2 ½ years was handed out to former Juventus sporting director and current Tottenham managing director Fabio Paratici, while current Juventus sporting director Federico Cherubini was given 16 months and former Juventus player turned board member Pavel Nedved was given eight months. The bans prohibit those individuals from engaging in soccer activities in Italy, “with the request that the ban be extended to UEFA and FIFA activities.” Juventus has denied wrongdoing and was initially cleared by the sports court in April. But an appeal was made after the federation collected papers from the Turin prosecutors. Federation prosecutor Giuseppe Chiné had requested a nine-point penalty for Juventus earlier Friday. Gianluca Ferrero was appointed Juventus’ new president on Wednesday, presiding over a smaller five-person board of directors. Also Wednesday, Agnelli announced that he was stepping down from all of his positions within the family businesses, including carmaker Stellantis, which controls FIAT, as well as the Exor holding company. Agnelli was also one of the architects of the failed European Super League project. The penalty comes 17 years after the “Calciopoli” refereeing scandal that saw Juventus demoted to Serie B and stripped of two Serie A titles. Fines were requested for eight other clubs: Sampdoria, Pro Vercelli, Genoa, Parma, Pisa, Empoli, Pescara and Novara. But all eight other clubs were cleared. Juventus was already eliminated from the Champions League in a horrible start to this season, which also saw it win only two of its opening nine Serie A matches. The club had since bounced back to climb into the top four. Juventus could face further penalties from UEFA, which also opened an inquiry into the club’s finances after the Turin prosecutor’s office requested indictments for Agnelli and 10 other former board members as well as the club itself. Juventus is listed on the Milan stock exchange, which also opens it to regulatory scrutiny by the CONSOB watchdog. At the start of the pandemic, Juventus said 23 players agreed to reduce their salary for four months to help the club through the crisis. But prosecutors claim the players gave up only one month’s salary. Turin prosecutors have also apparently discovered more alleged secret payments to former player Cristiano Ronaldo that were not reported by Juventus. In September, Juventus reported a record loss of 254.3 million euros ($276 million) for the 2021-22 financial year. It was the fifth consecutive year that Juventus reported a loss, and it was 44.4 million euros ($48 million) more than in 2020-21. A preliminary hearing for the investigation by Turin prosecturs is scheduled for March. Juventus hosts Atalanta in the league on Sunday.

More crosses creating more goals. Winning penalties with “total genius” like Cristiano Ronaldo. Pressing opponents to quickly win back the ball. FIFA’s expert analysts picked their World Cup trends Saturday from the first 16 games after each team played once. What the Technical Study Group saw was more and better crosses bearing fruit with a big increase in the number of goals — 14 instead of three — coming from wide areas compared to the 2018 tournament at the same stage. The nine penalty kicks awarded in the first 16 games put this World Cup on track for a record 36 in the entire 64-game tournament. There were 29 given by referees in 2018 when they first had video reviews. Clever players should get as much credit as new technology, according to Sunday Oliseh, a midfielder who played at two World Cups for Nigeria and is studying games in Qatar for FIFA. Read: Poland beat Saudis 2-0 at World Cup “Maybe the strikers are getting smarter? If you look at the penalty that Ronaldo got,” he said about the Portugal star seeming to tempt a Ghana defender into a tackle that was judged a foul. “People can say what they want about this man, but the smartness and the ingenious thought to just being patient and wait for that split second to touch the ball first before you,” Oliseh said, “and continue my leg so that your contact will hit my leg.” “That is total genius,” he added. Ghana coach Otto Addo might disagree. He described the penalty as “ a special gift from the referee.” Ronaldo got off the turf to open the scoring in Portugal’s 3-2 win, one of the seven penalties converted among the 41 total goals in 16 games through Thursday. That’s a solid average at a World Cup — a rate of 2.56 per game compared to the record of 2.67 at a full, 64-game tournament. Helping make up for the four scoreless draws, the FIFA analysts highlighted, was the impressive delivery from wide areas. The 14 goals stemming from crosses resulted from a better supply in Qatar where 56 crosses have led to goal attempts compared to just 35 in Russia four years ago, FIFA’s analysis said. Read: Japan eye World Cup knockout stage with win against Costa Rica Four games without goals — when the first 36 games in 2018 failed to produce a 0-0 draw — can be explained by teams’ caution to avoid losing their first game. Oliseh said the Portugal-Ghana game was drab until Ronaldo’s penalty “then it became a funfair” with a rush of second-half goals. “As the tournament progresses we will see teams becoming a bit braver,” said Alberto Zaccheroni, the Italian coach who led Japan at the 2014 World Cup. Teams that committed to pressing opponents deep in their own half were rewarded with regaining possession in dangerous areas and avoided chasing back toward their own goal, Zaccheroni said. FIFA data showed England, Spain, Germany and Argentina were most effective at “counter-pressing” tactics many players routinely use at their clubs. Coaches now having five substitutes meant their teams could keep “physically very taxing” energy levels high for the full game, Zaccheroni said.

A mobile court in Barishal imposed a penalty of Tk 30,000 on three ferry owners for carrying passengers beyond the permitted capacity on Friday. Joint director of Bangladesh Inland and Water Transport Authority, Mostafizur Rahman, said the mobile court conducted a drive in the Barishal port area around 7.30pm and imposed a fine of Tk 10,000 each on the owners of MV Parabat-18, Parabat-10 and MV Surovi-9 for overloading. The mobile court was led by executive magistrate Mushfiqur Rahman and assistant commissioner (land) Tariqul Islam, he added. Also read: Barishal ferry terminal brim with Eid rush

The ‘Payment and Settlement Systems Bill, 2022 was placed in Parliament on Monday with a provision for punishing top bank officials for committing bank fraud through digital cheques. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed the Bill before it was sent to the respective parliamentary standing committee. The committee was asked to submit its report within 30 days. As per the bill, punishment could be a maximum five years of imprisonment or Tk 50 lakh fine, or both. A provision has been included in the draft law to remove the owner, director, chief executive, manager, secretary or any other official of the company in the case of offences committed by the bank or the company. Also read: Mass media bill placed in Parliament, sent to standing committee The proposed law has mentioned punishment for various crimes, but it is not applicable for mobile banking services. There were regulations, but no precise law governing bank payments and settlements was there. Now it’s going digital. These were not there in the regulations. That’s why the whole system has been brought under the proposed law separately. In the bill, there are 47 sections, including provisions for electronic money transfers, but cryptocurrency, or virtual currency has not been included in it. Cryptocurrency is not approved as a medium of exchange by the central bank. The law has particular sections that outline offences. Section 4/5 defines how transactions will be conducted, how payments will be made, how they’ll be managed and how services will be offered. The draft also includes rules regarding board management, the minimum investment needed to be a member of the board, ownership and management, management of inspections, and rules of service. Also read: Report on EC formation Bill placed in parliament Provisions include the transfer of funds through electronic means and the issuing of digital funds by the central bank.” Section 37 of the draft law outlines the punishment for those who commit offences. Section 39 specifies that Bangladesh Bank can remove the owner, director, chief executive, manager, secretary or any other official of a company because of any offences they commit or are involved in.