Juventus is not only football. The club demonstrated as much on Thursday evening at the OGR Torino, during the Wave by Vento event, when it presented the Forward Squad 2026-27 — the second group of startups selected under its open innovation programme. The range extends from companies specialising in sports technology to those developing new ways for supporters to consume multimedia content. Presenting the second edition of the initiative alongside Juventus Innovation Manager Carolina Chiappero was Giorgio Chiellini, the club’s Chief Club Affairs Officer and the figure responsible for the entire non-sporting institutional dimension of the organisation.
“We Are Founders, Investors, and Part of the Same Family”
Chiellini’s opening remarks established the frame for everything that followed. “I think it is quite clear why we are here: we are founders, investors, and part of the same family. I think this innovation journey of Juventus must continue. We are very happy to present the results achieved last year and we look with enthusiasm towards the next season of the Juventus Forward project.” The language of family — used by Chiellini to describe the relationship between the club and its startup partners — is deliberate: it carries the same institutional weight as the term is given in the new Carnevali-era vocabulary of the squad’s internal relationships. Continuity, mutual investment, and shared purpose.
“When People Think of Juventus, They Imagine Eleven Players — But Innovation is 360 Degrees”
The most publicly quotable passage of the evening came in Chiellini’s description of what the programme is designed to reframe. “When people think of Juventus, they imagine a team composed of eleven players. But we are here because we believe in 360-degree innovation. The opportunities do not only concern the players, but also what happens behind the scenes and everything that surrounds them. It is a stimulating journey. We are working to promote innovation and I believe this is the right moment to do so.”
The framing is significant in the context of the season’s broader institutional story: Carnevali and Chiellini are operating within a club whose playing ambitions have been constrained by debt and regulatory pressure, and which has identified innovation in the widest possible sense — commercial, technical, infrastructural — as the path to restoring financial competitiveness without relying exclusively on on-pitch performance.
“Juventus Has Always Been a Point of Reference — Capable of Looking Forward and Innovating, On and Off the Pitch”
On the club’s historical identity and its relationship to the innovation project: “Juventus has always been considered a point of reference, capable of looking forward and innovating, on and off the pitch. And we will continue to do so — you will see it. Innovation is an intelligent tool to achieve this objective. It cannot be an isolated project or a standalone initiative: it must become one of the fundamental values of Juventus. We did it in the past, we are doing it today, and we will continue to do so in the future. Thank you to all the startups who are here with us. We hope to help you grow, just as you can help us reach our objectives.”
The First Season — What Twelve Months of Pilots Delivered
On the results of the inaugural 2025-26 Forward Squad, Chiellini’s summary was both specific and enthusiastic: “We had the chance to work with ten extraordinary startups and we obtained very positive results from the ten pilot projects. We gained access to new data, expanded our support at global level, improved the translation of our content into more languages, developed solutions for Return to Play, and experimented with tools to measure the concentration levels of some of our players. It was a truly extraordinary journey. What surprised me most? Probably the speed of the startups and their capacity to adapt when they encountered difficulties — transforming obstacles into opportunities. And on our side, what surprised me positively was the openness of the organisation toward this new project, together with the willingness to collaborate, to help, and to allow themselves to be helped. We often think that significant changes require very long timeframes — but this experience demonstrated that it is possible to proceed more quickly. I am very happy that we managed to complete the first season of Juventus Forward. But I believe that next year we will have a great responsibility: we must do even better.”
