Juventus have no intention of closing their judicial dispute with Cristiano Ronaldo over salaries relating to the pandemic period. After the Turin tribunal’s January 2026 rejection of the club’s challenge to the original arbitration award, Juventus have chosen to continue the legal battle — and have done so at the highest possible level. As reported by Calcio e Finanza from the 2025-26 annual accounts, the appeal to the Court of Cassation — Italy’s supreme civil court — was notified on 27 March 2026. A hearing date is now awaited.
The Origin of the Dispute — €19.6 Million, a Pandemic, and a Broken Promise
At the centre of the matter are approximately €19.6 million which Ronaldo claimed he was owed in connection with economic agreements reached during the public health emergency. The controversy dates to the period immediately before his departure from Juventus to Manchester United in the summer of 2021 — a period in which Italian football, like all professional sport across Europe, was navigating unprecedented financial disruption. Ronaldo initiated an arbitration procedure against his former club to recover the sum.
On 17 April 2024, the Arbitral Tribunal partially upheld the player’s claims. The decision recognised a pre-contractual liability on the part of the club, linked to the failure to finalise negotiations between the parties. As a consequence, Juventus were ordered to pay €9.8 million — exactly half the amount originally claimed — plus interest and monetary revaluation as provided for by the ruling.
The Turin Court Rejection — January 2026
Juventus did not accept the arbitration outcome and moved to challenge it through the ordinary courts. The Turin tribunal heard the club’s challenge and, on 13 January 2026, rejected it — upholding the arbitration panel’s decision and leaving the €9.8 million plus interest liability in place. Juventus’s response was not to settle but to escalate.
The Court of Cassation — the Final Legal Frontier
The Cassazione appeal, notified on 27 March 2026, is the club’s last legal option. The Court of Cassation does not re-examine the merits of the case but reviews whether the lower courts correctly applied the law — a narrower but potentially decisive question when the original arbitration rested on a finding of pre-contractual liability. A date for the hearing has not yet been set.
The Balance Sheet — No New Financial Impact Anticipated
The third chapter — “Bilancio Juventus, nessun nuovo impatto economico previsto” — addresses the financial dimension directly. The 2025-26 annual accounts, from which Calcio e Finanza extracted the Cassazione filing detail, indicate that Juventus do not anticipate any new economic impact from the ongoing litigation beyond what has already been provisioned. The club has treated the matter as a contingent liability in its accounts — setting aside sufficient provision for the possibility that the supreme court upholds the lower courts — without treating a further loss as a certainty. The dispute will be resolved on legal rather than financial grounds, but its shadow over the relationship between one of football’s most iconic players and the club he served for three seasons remains active and unresolved.
