| Italian Trio Relegated
Serie A sides Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina have been demoted to the second division for their involvement in Italy's match-fixing scandal.
AC Milan will stay in Serie A but will lose 15 points and will be kicked out of the Champions League.
Juventus were also stripped of their last two titles and had 30 points deducted, meaning that they are almost certain to stay down for two seasons.
Lazio were penalised seven points while Fiorentina suffered a 12-point penalty.
The decision also means Juventus, AC Milan and Fiorentina are out of the Champions League and Lazio the Uefa Cup.
The clubs have three days to appeal to the Federal Court.
But they may find they will run out of time to rescue their European places regardless of the outcome of any appeal because the deadline for entry is only 11 days away.
The FIGC (Italian football's governing body) must hand its European counterpart Uefa the lists of teams that will be involved in its competitions by 25 July.
Inter, Roma, Chievo and Palermo, who finished third, fifth and seventh and eighth are in line to take the places of the penalised clubs in next season's Champions League.
Lecce, Messina, and Treviso will avoid relegation to Serie B and keep their places in the top flight as a result of the verdict.
Those directly involved with the scandal were also penalised, with former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi suspended from all football for five years and Adriano Galliani, who was AC Milan vice-president, suspended for one year.
The tribunal in Rome investigated charges that the clubs, their management, football officials and referees tried to influence the outcome of matches by interfering with the appointment of officials.
In May, transcripts were published of telephone conversations between Moggi and Italian Football Association officials, discussing refereeing appointments in the 2004-05 season.
FIGC prosecutor Stefano Palazzi also charged 26 individuals for sporting fraud and violating fairness and probity.
All four clubs implicated denied the accusations.
Thirteen of Italy's World Cup-winning squad play for the clubs involved, with five at Juventus, who also number Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram, David Trezeguet, Pavel Nedved and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their ranks.
Many of them are expected to seek transfers to other leading clubs in Italy or Europe to limit the damage to their careers. |