Juventus Slumps After Champions League Exit Adds to Finance Woes
Juventus Plunges With New Coach Pirlo Named After Europe Exit
(Bloomberg) -- Juventus Football Club SpA fell the most in five months after the Italian team was knocked out from Europe’s Champions League in a shock exit that prompted the Agnellis-owned team to replace Maurizio Sarri with the unexperienced Andrea Pirlo.
Shares declined as much as 11.5%, the most since March 12, in Milan trading, giving the firm a market value of 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion). Reaching to the quarter-finals would have granted the club an additional income of 10.5 million euros.
“The premature exit from Europe’s elite club competition will weight on the club’s already weak finance, making harder for the team to lower the average age of players with acquisitions,” said Jacopo Ceccatelli, chief executive officer of Italian broker-dealer Marzotto SIM SpA. “The purchase of Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t paid back, and the hiring of an unexperienced coach adds uncertainty about the future of an above-average aged team team that needs a reshuffle.”
Pirlo, 41, who has no experience as a coach, signed a two-year deal, the club said in a statement Saturday. In a playing career that included four years in Juventus’ midfield, he won the sport’s biggest trophies -- the Champions League and, in 2006, the World Cup.
Juventus was eliminated from Europe’s most prestigious tournament by France’s Lyon, one of the continent’s lesser lights.
After the match, Chairman Andrea Agnelli said the Champions League title “was a dream before”, now it’s a target. He also said he expects Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored both Juve goals in Thursday’s match, will stay at the club.
Shares of AS Roma, the soccer team which U.S. billionaire Dan Friedkin agreed to buy earlier this week, took a hit too. It fell 25% after the team was ousted from the Europa league.
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