Explaining Juventus mess: What they did wrong and what it means

On Friday, Juventus were found guilty of transfer irregularities and docked 15 points by the Italian Football Association's sporting tribunal, a decision that pushes them from third place down to midtable. Eleven current or former Juventus directors were also banned, including former president Andrea Agnelli (two years), former chief football officer Fabio Paratici, who is now at Tottenham Hotspur (2½ years) and sporting director Federico Cherubini (16 months).

It's a massive body blow for the Turin club, so here is a Q&A to make sense of it.

Q: What exactly were they found guilty of doing?

A: Essentially engineering transfers, usually swap deals, where little or no money changed hands but the…