Italian trio Relegated

The Phantom

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 clubs will have three days to appeal to the Federal Court.

The FIGC (Italian football's governing body) must hand Uefa the lists of teams that will be involved in European competitions by 25 July, with Juventus, AC Milan and and Fiorentina out of the Champions League and Lazio thrown out of the Uefa Cup.

Inter, Roma, Chievo and Palermo, who finished third, fifth and seventh and eighth are all expected to be the teams taking part in next season's Champions League.

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.

The Phantom

Juve may as well have been relegated to Seria C with that decision. It's going to be at least 2 years before they're back in Seria A and even longer before their back in Europe.

I bet Milan are breathing a sigh of relief. They could probably get away with only having to sell one or two players and keep a hold of the rest.

The Champions League is now going to be a 2 country race between Spain and England, which is not necessarily that good for the European game.

Now the fun begins to see who’s going where…

Snowman

What a bunch of bull crap. Juventus gets destroyed, while AC Milan gets basically nothing. If Gianny Agnelli was still alive, this would have never happened to Juventus. Milan is lucky that their owner goes by the name of Silvio Berlusconi.

Snowman

They will most probably be relegated to Serie C next year. Its tough to stay in B when you are stuck 30 points.