2J08J50 Turin, Italy. 16 March 2022. Arthur Melo of Juventus FC in action during the UEFA Champions League round of sixteen second leg football match between Juventus FC and Villarreal CF. Credit: Nicolo Campo/Alamy Live News

Juventus wiretap reveals ex-director ‘admitting’ they overpaid for Arthur

In another wild revelation from the investigation into Juventus’ financial tampering, ex-CFO Marco Re has allegedly admitted overpaying for Arthur.

Juventus are currently embroiled in a damning investigation over their finances, which has led to a number of directors stepping down.

They have already been handed a 15-point deduction in Serie, while former sporting director Fabio Paratici, now of Tottenham, was among those banned from Italian football for 30 months.

This comes with the Italian club accused of inflating transfer fees in order to fix their balance sheets, while it is also claimed that players agreed to falsely lower their wages to reduce reported losses.

Arthur was one of those, according to documents shared by journalist Paolo Ziliani, which could see the Brazilian face a ban upon his return to Juventus.

Now, the Liverpool loanee has reportedly been named by former Juventus chief financial officer Re, who admitted on a wiretapped phone call that the club overpaid Barcelona for Arthur in 2020.

“Think of a player like Arthur, who you paid €75 million to have a capital gain with Pjanic,” he said, according to Corriere della Sera.

“It was clear he wasn’t worth as much, was he?”

2HC0XDF Turin, Italy. 21 December 2021. Arthur Melo of Juventus FC gestures during the Serie A football match between Juventus FC and Cagliari Calcio. Credit: Nicolo Campo/Alamy Live News

Juventus themselves claimed that they had paid €72 million for Arthur, committing a further €10 million in potential add-ons, while Miralem Pjanic moved the other way for up to €65 million.

At the time, the Turin outfit wrote: “The economic effect is positive for about €41.8 million, net of solidarity contribution and auxiliary expenses.”

It is a damning indictment of Juventus’ situation, with chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene also admitting the calculations made his “skin crawl a bit” as they were “absolutely outside the parameters.”

Arthur, meanwhile, appears to be an unfortunate pawn in the middle of a circus, only further blighting the rough time he has faced since departing Gremio in 2018.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, September 6, 2022: Liverpool's Arthur Melo during a training session at the AXA Training Centre ahead of the UEFA Champions League Group A matchday 1 game between SSC Napoli and Liverpool FC. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

The 26-year-old is not expected to be retained beyond the end of his loan spell at Liverpool, having only played 13 minutes for the Reds so far due to injury.

Now back fit, however, he can hope to play a part in the second half of the Premier League campaign – though he has been omitted from the Champions League squad.

The midfielder will still have two years left on his contract when he returns to Juventus this summer, but he has been linked with a move back to Brazil with Palmeiras.