At one point in the early 1980s, the Juventus directors corralled all of the first-team players together. The club had a big problem to solve: it hadn't yet won the European Cup.
At the time, striker Paolo Rossi called the record “bizarre”. But, even after Juventus eventually lifted the trophy for the second time in 1996, that description could be still applied to the club's history in the competition on a number of levels.
Most obviously, it is simply curious that Italy's most successful side have such a mediocre record in club football's greatest competition. That's all the more stark considering that, due to their record number of Serie A wins, Juventus have competed in the European Cup more times (26) than every other club except Milan (26), Ajax, Bayern Munich (both 28), Dynamo Kiev (29), Benfica (31) and Real Madrid (42). Of those, only Kiev have won the competition less.
Juventus' relative failure goes even further though. They've also reached the semi-finals more times than everyone except Manchester United, Milan, Barcelona, Bayern and Real but, from there, Italy's greatest winners have also ultimately proven Europe's greatest losers. They are one of only three clubs, along with Benfica and Bayern, to have lost more Champions League finals than they've won.
And all of those showpiece appearances have been strange in much more controversial ways. Four came under suspicion of doping, another two carried the stench of match-fixing and, worst of all, the 1985 final saw the actual tragedy of Heysel.
In truth, though, Juve's history in the competition started as it would continue: curiously and with a host of contradictions. Despite the club possessing two of the greatest players in the world in Omar Sivoru and John Charles, their 1957-58 debut would feature one of the most remarkable defeats: Juventus were hammered 7-0 away to Wiener Sports Club and immediately eliminated.
After that game, Charles complained of the physicality of the Austrians. “This game was the most frightening episode of my career. I was kicked so much that I heard the doctors in the Molinette Hospital in Turin discussing whether or not they might need to amputate my leg.”
It seems it wasn't all one way though. Wiener's Walter Horak said: “Some acted ugly. Sivori and [Rino] Ferrario were looking for trouble. They were committed but, once the goals poured in, they lost their will.”
That would remain the case in the European Cup for another few years. After losing to CSKA Sofia in 1960-61, it wouldn't be until their third attempt, the following season, that Juventus would actually win a tie. And, having knocked out Panathinaikos and Partizan Belgrade, they would follow that by inflicting Real Madrid's first ever home defeat in the competition by winning 1-0 in the Bernabeu. These were giddy heights as they took the competition's grandest club to a play-off in Paris. There, however, Real reasserted reality to win 3-1.
To a degree that very defeat illustrated an eternal problem for sides who are so dominant domestically at a specific period. Just like Manchester United in the early ‘90s and even Real themselves in the late ‘70s, the Italian game just wasn't quite capable of matching the elite end of the competition at the time. Their platform was slightly lower as Real and Benfica developed a dynamic duopoly.
By the time Serie A eventually caught up, big steps had been taken in a city other than Turin. The two Milan clubs had perfected the darker arts of Catenaccio in the early ‘60s and gone on to dominate Europe with four trophies between them in seven years. Inevitably, the rest of Italy soon adapted and adopted the approaches of the Milan clubs. Unfortunately, though, that didn't just involve counter-attacking.
Throughout the ‘60s, Inter had employed the notorious Hungarian “fixer” Dezso Solti. Through the work of Brian Glanville in the Sunday Times, it was exposed that Solti had both bribed and attempted to bribe a series of continental referees. Gyorgy Vadas told Glanville how he was offered “enough to buy five, maybe six, Mercedes” in order to “ensure that Real Madrid did not go forward" in the 1965-66 semi-final.
At the time, Solti was ‘run' by Inter secretary Italo Allodi. And where did both find employment in the early '70s? Juventus.
Another referee, this time the Portuguese Francisco Marques Lobo, would tell Glanville how, ahead of Juventus' notorious semi-final second leg against Brian Clough's Derby County in 1972-73, he had Solti dangling a set of car keys as well as £5,000 in cash in front of him. Lobo wouldn't take the bait but Clough thought someone else had and made that very well known after the first-leg 3-1 defeat.
After German midfielder Helmut Haller had been spotted in with the referee, Clough asked Glanville to translate for him: “No cheating bastards will I talk to. I will not talk to any cheating bastards.”
At the time, incredibly, UEFA didn't have an investigative arm. Juventus, however, never sued the Sunday Times. They also never won that European Cup. By the 1972-73 final, Ajax had themselves made a quantum leap from Catenaccio and won easily. But, if that period defined Italian football off the pitch, Juve's next manager at least defined the club for purer reasons on the pitch. The only problem was that, as impressive as Giovanni Trapattoni's overall record is, it wasn't all positive when it came to Europe.
Throughout Alex Ferguson's time as a manager, much has been made of how he might have done better on the continent. The same applies to one of his first contemporaries. Indeed, just like Juventus as a whole, Trapattoni's 10 years were marked by magnificence in Serie A but oddly middling performances in the European Cup. In five attempts, they went out at every single possible stage of the competition.
Most tellingly, in the 1983 final, Trapattoni was out-foxed by Ernst Happel with a single tactical switch which propelled Hamburg to a 1-0 victory. Most tragically, Juventus' eventual win came amid the disaster of Heysel, in which 39 people died. With so much controversy about who knew what and the extent of celebrations, Rossi later said “that trophy has no meaning for me”.
It's a view that prevails. It's also little surprise that, when Juventus finally beat Ajax in 1996, it was treated like the first time. It did seem like it would lead to the dynasty the directors long demanded though. Taking the pressing game developed by Arrigo Sacchi to a peak, Marcello Lippi's side simply overwhelmed teams.
After their fixtures in 1995-96, Rangers manager Walter Smith turned to journalist Hugh McIlvanney in wonder. “Did you see the thighs on the likes of Ravanelli?” he said. “You are looking at players who are far, far stronger in terms of muscle development than anything we've got. We have always assumed we would have to struggle to compete with the technique of the best continental teams but that we would have a physical advantage over them."
In 1982-83, Trapattoni had to deny his team were using the muscle-strengthening drug carnitine. In the late '90s, the club would have to deal with such accusations again. The outspoken comments of Czech coach Zdenak Zeman prompted a criminal investigation by Turin public prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, who was himself a Juventus fan.
The inquiry removed more than 100 medicines and concoctions from the club and, in November 2004, led to a suspended jail sentence for club doctor Riccardo Agricola. A few months later, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Dick Pound, demanded Juve be stripped of the titles they had won in those years, including the 1996 Champions League. That didn't happen, as Agricola was later acquitted and Juventus were cleared. Zeman, however, remained steadfast. In December 2005, he wrote: "Even the Court of Appeal verdict proves I was right... if there is one absolute certainty to come out of both these trials, it is that there has been abuse of pharmaceutical products." Either way, it sparked a decade of controversy which culminated in the Calciopoli scandal.
This week, as Juventus finally return to the Champions League as recognised Italian champions for the first time since 2002-03, their last defeated final, they will do so without their coach Antonio Conte on the bench. The manager, who played in the 1996 final, has had his 10-month suspension for match-fixing violations during his time at Siena extended worldwide. The club's history in the competition remains all too curious.