Juventus' board of directors and president Andrea Agnelli resigned en masse on Monday.

The stunning move follows a preliminary investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office into fraudulent accounting, of alleged hidden payments to players.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Juventus said 23 players agreed to reduce their salary for four months to help the club through the crisis. But its claimed the players gave up only one month's salary.

A shareholders meeting rescheduled for Dec. 27 was postponed again to Jan. 18 to choose a new board.

The collective resignation comes after Juventus' financial statements underwent scrutiny by prosecutors and Italian market regulator Consob in recent months for alleged false accounting and market manipulation. The company has denied any wrongdoing.

A Juventus statement read: "The Board of Directors, considering the focus and relevance of the pending legal and technical-accounting issues, have deemed it in the best interest to recommend that Juventus adopt a new Board of Directors to deal with these issues."

Alongside Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedved has offered his resignation as has chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene - but Juventus have asked the latter to remain in his position to transition over to the next board of directors.

Juventus, under Agnelli's stewardship, are still signed up to the breakaway league along with Barcelona and Real Madrid, despite the other nine European clubs quickly stepping away from the project due to backlash from the football community.

Agnelli wrote a letter to all Juventus employees in which he heralded 'extraordinary results' including the building of their Allianz stadium, as well as nine consecutive league titles for the men's team and five in a row for the women's side. 

He also talked about the Champions League final appearances in Berlin and Cardiff and then observes: 'We are facing a delicate moment in society. Better to leave everyone together, giving the possibility to a new team to overturn the game'.