Juventus are undergoing their most significant boardroom upheaval in years. Damien Comolli will no longer be the chief executive of Juventus. After just one season at the helm, the club have decided to turn the page — and the changes do not stop with him.
La Gazzetta dello Sport report how the departure is described as unexpected in some quarters, despite Comolli’s position having been under pressure for some time, not least due to a strained relationship with manager Luciano Spalletti. Only the final formalities remain — barring a surprise, Comolli will no longer hold the director general role he assumed on 4 June 2025.
Carnevali: The Appointment the Italian Football World Has Long Anticipated
In pole position to replace him is Giovanni Carnevali, the current chief executive and director general of Sassuolo, a figure long held in high regard within the Juventus ownership group — so much so that he has already held a meeting with the bianconeri hierarchy in recent days.
Carnevali is widely regarded as one of the shrewdest operators in Italian football. During his long tenure at Sassuolo, he oversaw a model of intelligent, sustainable recruitment that regularly punched well above the club’s financial weight. His deep roots in the Italian game represent a deliberate pivot away from the more internationally focused, data-driven philosophy that Comolli brought from his time at Liverpool and Toulouse.
The Shake-Up Goes Beyond Comolli
According to reports from TuttoMercatoWeb, Comolli may not be the only departure. The club is also considering ending its working relationship with both Modesto and Ottolini. The one figure who would remain is Giorgio Chiellini, though he would need to be supported by new appointments.
Alongside Carnevali, the name of Matteo Tognozzi — currently sporting director at Rio Ave — has emerged as a potential return to the club in a director of football capacity. The position of sporting director Marco Ottolini, who arrived only last January, also remains uncertain, with Juventus understood to be keen on bringing Tognozzi back to Turin.
The Tunnel Incident: The Moment That Changed Everything
The backdrop to this boardroom revolution has been building for months. Earlier in the season, the disciplinary fallout from the Derby d’Italia proved damaging for Comolli, who was handed a lengthy ban from all football activities until 31 March 2026 after displaying what the official match report described as an “aggressive and seriously intimidating attitude” towards the referee in the tunnel at San Siro — with Juventus coaching staff having to physically restrain him from making contact with the official. The episode severely damaged his standing both within the club and in the eyes of Italian football’s governing bodies.
A Critical Moment to Change the Guard
The timing of this revolution could scarcely be more delicate. Comolli had been tasked with finding the financial resources to meet the club’s balance sheet objectives before 30 June, as Juventus pursue a model of financial self-sustainability under UEFA regulations. Active negotiations over Dibu Martínez, Sorloth, Lucumí, and several other targets are all at sensitive stages.
Whether those deals now accelerate or stall under the transitional period will be one of the defining questions of Juventus’s summer. What is beyond doubt is that the rebuild at the Allianz Stadium now extends far beyond the playing squad — and the revolution at the top of the club has only just begun.
