The club filed the appeal on 27 March 2026, targeting a January 2026 ruling by the Turin Labour Court that upheld an earlier arbitration award of €9.8 million to the Portuguese forward. The move was made public this month, confirming the case has climbed to the highest rung of Italy’s civil justice system.
The dispute dates to the COVID-19 pandemic, when Juventus reportedly committed to paying Ronaldo around €19.5 million in deferred wages to help the club through the shutdown. When he left for Manchester United in the summer of 2021, Juventus argued the matter had been settled.
From the “Ronaldo letter” to a €9.8m award
Ronaldo took the opposite view. He pursued the money through a sports arbitration panel, which ruled in his favour on 17 April 2024 and ordered Juventus to pay €9.8 million plus interest and inflation adjustments, roughly half of the €19.6 million he had claimed.
The private agreement at the heart of the fight became known as the “Ronaldo letter,” a document uncovered during the Prisma investigation into the club’s accounting practices. That inquiry eventually forced the resignations of president Andrea Agnelli and the full board in late 2022.
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Juventus challenged the 2024 arbitration award at the Turin Labour Court, but the challenge was rejected on 13 January 2026.
Juventus argue the merits were never tested
Rather than accept the Turin verdict, the Bianconeri filed what in Italian law is an appeal on points of law. The club maintains that the Turin Court looked only at formal defects in the arbitration award and never ruled on the substance of the claim, meaning the underlying conclusions of the arbitrators have never been properly tested.
The arbitration panel itself had been careful on one key point. It found that Juventus had not set out to mislead Ronaldo and noted that he did not ask for the money at the time he left Italy in 2021.
€9.8m already in the books
Despite the legal escalation, the financial hit is already absorbed. Juventus stated in their 2025/26 financial report that the €9.8 million was paid to Ronaldo in the 2023/24 financial year, with no further negative impact expected from the Cassation proceedings.
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The Court of Cassation can either uphold the Turin ruling, in which case the award stands as final, or send the case back for a fresh examination on the merits. A date for the hearing has not yet been set.
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