Juve shares slide as scandal deepens

JUVENTUS Football Club SpA shares slid yesterday on concern that Italy’s most successful soccer team may be dropped from the country’s premier league, putting at risk €600 million in television and sponsorship contracts following corruption allegations.

Juventus fell as much as 29 cents, or 14%, to €1.735 before being suspended at €1.745 at 9:24am in Milan, giving the company a market value of €211m.

The team controlled by the Agnelli family said on May 13 that contracts with companies including News Corp, Mediaset SpA and Nike may be at risk if the team is demoted from Serie A. Those contracts include about €110m from Mediaset SpA for television rights for each of the next two seasons and €95m from Sky Italia SpA, a unit of News Corp, for satellite rights for next year.