ORGANISERS of the Frankwell-Juventus exhibition match yesterday threatened legal action in an effort to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars lost after the Italian club pulled out of next Wednesday's Satchi Italy Cup.
Organisers ProEvents were left reeling by the Italian Serie A champions' withdrawal, seven days before the match was due to be held at the Hong Kong Stadium.
Juventus announced their withdrawal from a tour of the Far East - which was also to include a match in Guangzhou against the Guangzhou select next Friday - at their headquarters yesterday, a move which has infuriated organisers who claim the Turin club have gone back on a previous agreement that they would accept reduced appearance money if star striker Robert Baggio did not start in the territory.
ProEvents have given Juventus a 24-hour ultimatum: that they must honour an agreement to play in Hong Kong with a first team or suffer subsequent legal action.
Organisers said they would file a formal complaint to the Hong Kong Football Association, the Chinese Football Association and FIFA and instruct their lawyers to take up the case if they receive no positive response by today.
ProEvents said they would claim financial losses amounting to an estimated $500,000, although that figure could swell closer to $1 million with the cost of hiring the stadium, ticket sales, gate receipts and advertisement losses taken into account.
Paul Kam, managing director of ProEvents, said full-page newspaper advertisements had been placed from early May and more than 20,000 tickets had been sold. But he stressed all tickets would be completely refunded. Organisers have instructed ticket buyers to return to the place where they bought their tickets between June 12 and 16 for a full refund.
