Serie A table if Juventus have points penalty overturned
The fourth week of April holds three key dates for Juventus on and off the pitch.
On Thursday, Massimiliano Allegri will lead the team to Lisbon for the first leg of the club's Europa League quarter-final against Sporting CP. Juventus host Serie A champions-elect Napoli on Sunday night in a contest that will be dramatically influenced by the event ringed in red on the Bianconeri's calendar this week.
The appeal hearing for Juve's points deduction takes place on Wednesday 19 April. Expected to take between two and three hours, Juve should know whether the 15-point penalty which they suffered in January will stand.
The individual careers of 11 former Juventus executives banned from the sport across the globe, including Tottenham's managing director of football Fabio Paratici, will also be decided.
After 30 games of the 2022/23 Serie A season, Juventus currently reside in the unfamiliar position of seventh. The Bianconeri had been third when the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) won their appeal accusing the club of gross financial irregularities - namely, artificially inflating transfer fees - and saw 15 points stripped.
Should Juventus successfully argue in favour of the original decision - which cleared Juve and several other clubs of any wrongdoing last year - here's how the Serie A table would look.
Serie A table if Juventus have points penalty overturned
Position | Team | Games | Wins | Draws | Losses | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Napoli | 30 | 24 | 3 | 3 | 75 |
2 | Lazio | 30 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 61 |
3 | Juventus | 30 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 59 |
4 | Roma | 30 | 17 | 5 | 8 | 56 |
5 | Milan | 30 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 53 |
6 | Inter | 30 | 16 | 3 | 11 | 51 |
7 | Atalanta | 30 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 49 |
8 | Bologna | 30 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 44 |
9 | Fiorentina | 30 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 42 |
10 | Sassuolo | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 40 |
11 | Torino | 30 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 39 |
12 | Udinese | 30 | 9 | 12 | 9 | 39 |
13 | Monza | 30 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 38 |
14 | Empoli | 30 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 32 |
15 | Salernitana | 30 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 30 |
16 | Lecce | 30 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 28 |
17 | Spezia | 30 | 5 | 11 | 14 | 26 |
18 | Hellas Verona | 30 | 5 | 8 | 17 | 23 |
19 | Cremonese | 30 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 19 |
20 | Sampdoria | 30 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 16 |
Before consecutive defeats to Lazio and Sassuolo, Juve had collected 21 points from the 24 available since January and the initial wobble Allegri's team suffered in the immediate aftermath of the points penalty.
This strong form has Juve on the cusp of the European places even with the handicap they have been handed. However, if the courts decide to add another 15 points to their seasonal haul, Juve would rocket up to third in the table, just two points behind Maurizio Sarri's Biancoceleste.
Only runaway league leaders Napoli have won more Serie A matches on the pitch than Juve this season, with the Bianconeri preventing the opposition from scoring in more than half of their 30 league matches (17).
Juve's gain would be Milan's loss. If Allegri's side scurry up the standings, his former employers - and the reigning Serie A champions - will be shunted out of the lucrative top four which guarantees Champions League football next season. Roma are only three points ahead of the Rossoneri and don't have any windfall of points waiting to be banked. Jose Mourinho's side host Milan in an intriguing clash at the end of April.
Elsewhere, Atalanta would be nudged out of the top six. The Bergamo outfit's long-serving manager Gian Piero Gasperini has spoken of the need to refresh his squad - which is an uneasy blend of bright young talent and ageing stars of the side that finished third three years in a row between 2019 and 2021.
Gasperini's grand plans for a summer overhaul will have to be scaled back if Atalanta fail to qualify for Europe - which is the case for those outside the top six in Serie A.
A lot is resting on the decision to be made by the President of the Sports Guarantee College Gabriella Palmieri Sandulli. However, luckily for a judge that hails from Naples, one thing that won't be affected by the outcome of Wednesday's appeal is the Serie A title - that has been Napoli's since they dismantled Juventus with a 5-1 trampling in the reverse fixture in Turin, before any penalty had been handed out.
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