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John Elkann (CEO of Exor) full letter to the shareholders
John Elkann, the CEO of Exor (the parent company of Juventus), wrote a letter to the company’s shareholders in which he mentioned the Juventus situation. It goes like this:
“While many of our firms had an excellent year in 2021, others encountered major obstacles. The 2020/2021 season was turbulent for Juventus, both on and off the field. As for the rest of sports and the sector, the pandemic has prevented fans from seeing their teams in action. Juventus played 50 per cent of their games at Allianz Stadium behind closed doors in 2021. While the rest were constrained by laws that limited their attendance, from 1,000 spectators to half of the venue’s capacity.
This deprived the players of that energy that comes from the fans – something that the former player and then Juventus President Giampiero Boniperti, who unfortunately left us in 2021, knew well when he said: “there is no better gift than the love of the fans ”. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit Juventus just as it was launching the new development plan, using the € 300 million capital increase decided at the end of 2019. The combination of declining revenues and the shrinking global transfer market from $ 7.4 billion in 2019 to $ 4.9 billion in 2021 led to a difficult first half of the 2021/2022 season, with Juventus closing with a loss of € 119 million. In response to all this, Juventus developed a new plan and launched a capital increase of € 400 million, approved in October 2021.
These difficulties highlighted the structural weakness of football, in Italy and in Europe. Andrea Agnelli, the President of Juventus, then supported the reasons for structural reform and governance of the sector, with the aim of making it more fair and sustainable for all those who love this sport.
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On the pitch, the Serie A title escaped our men’s team, but the women’s team continued their national dominance with the fourth consecutive Scudetto. However, the men managed to win the Italian Super Cup in January before winning the Italian Cup in May. As we have learned, when results are lacking, change is necessary, and that is why we have appointed a new Board of Directors and the new CEOs, Sporting directors, coaches and players. We have also guaranteed the Company enough time and resources to get back to the top, on and off the pitch: the greatest desire of all its passionate fans and shareholders.”
