Giovanni Carnevali did not look for softer wording when the question turned to Juventus and the Champions League.
“It has become more business than football. If you qualify for the Champions League it is one thing, otherwise it is a bloodbath,” the Juventus chief executive told the audience at the Festival dello Sport in Trento on 1 October.
The numbers behind the warning are blunt. Juventus closed the 2025/26 financial year with a loss of around €66m, and owner Exor is now backing a capital increase of up to €250m, with roughly €60m already advanced to steady the accounts.
“We have limits we need to respect,” Carnevali added, pointing to UEFA’s financial parameters as the ceiling the club has to plan under.
He also used the stage to credit John Elkann personally.
“Elkann has given further proof of how much he backs Juventus with the latest decision on the capital increase,” the CEO said.
Conte ‘has never been in our thoughts’
Carnevali spent much of the session defending head coach Luciano Spalletti, who is still absorbing a damaging September defeat at Sassuolo, and shutting down the recurring Antonio Conte speculation that has shadowed the club.
“Spalletti does not need to be defended by me. In difficult moments like the defeat at Sassuolo he was targeted, but Spalletti is an extraordinary coach,” Carnevali said.
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“If you went to one of his training sessions, you would stand there with your mouth open.”
On Conte, who has been linked repeatedly in the Italian press, Carnevali was unambiguous.
“Conte is a friend. I know he is a top coach of the very highest level, but he is not in our thoughts and he never was,” Carnevali said.
A €70-80m sale as part of the plan
The CEO was equally frank about how the UEFA constraints shape the trading model: Juventus will have to plan for at least one significant outgoing transfer, and they nearly had an unplanned one over the summer.
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“We have to think about someone who can be resold for €70-80m,” Carnevali said when asked how the squad can be squared with the budget.
He then confirmed how close that calculation came to being made for them.
“We nearly lost [Kerim Alajbegovic] right at the end because of Chelsea’s higher offer,” he said, acknowledging the Premier League club had tabled a bid above Juventus’s own valuation before the window closed.
Juventus sit seventh in the 2026/27 Serie A table with 10 points from their opening five matches, outside the Champions League places Carnevali has just described as a financial necessity.
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