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 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.

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.

Now the fun begins to see who’s going where… I suspect a few of the Juve lot will follow Capello to Real Madrid. Barca will probably pick up a few as well. I’d like to see Man Utd go for Gattuso. He’s exactly the kind of midfielder they need at the moment. As well as a top class striker, since Van Nistelrooy seems to be on his way.

Narc

AC Milan is keeping all of their players. Gattuso is not going anywhere.

The Phantom

It'll remain to be seen if they can keep their players. It looks like they'll be out of Europen Competition for at least 2 years, and they'll be missing out on that revenue. Which is essential for all the major clubs.

Also players like Gattuso and Kaka need to be playing in the Uefa Cup and Champions League to help them gain places in their national sides. Also how many players are going to be happy not competing at the top for a season or two? They may want to move on and play for clubs which are already in European competitions.

Narc

I guess you are right, but in a recent interview Gattuso has said that he will remain with AC Milan no matter what...cant say the same for the other players tho.

The Phantom

Well, it appears Milan may still play in Europe next season... apparently Empoli don't have a licence to play in european competition. (never heard that one before) So Milan may be allowed to enter the Uefa Cup, having finished 1 place behind Empoli in the final league standings after their 15pts deducted. I suppose it'll be up to Uefa if Empoli will be granted a licence.. I don't see why they shouldn't be.

If Milan do get to play in the Uefa Cup, then I can't see any reason for any of their players to leave, unless they desperatly want to play in the Champions League. And getting back to Gattuso, if there's anyone who seems like he'd enjoy the challenge of getting Milan back to the top, it'd be him. He's a true fighter.

Narc

I think the problem with Empoli right now is the stadium. Their stadium is not up to standards.

AC Milan's punishment looks more and more like a joke, especially if they get to play for the UEFA Cup.

thirty7

don't know the details. i've only heard bits and pieces of this, but i was just wondering what match-fixing crimes each of those clubs commited and to what extent. I'd been told only to expect Juventus be demoted. So thats the extent to which i knew.

I wish my sex life was like ECW, first you get a One Night Stand followed by 2 months of nostalgic orgasms and then 6 months of constant sucking.

3D

Juventus were certainly most embroiled in the troubles.

The scandal broke out because police and Football officials taped phone conversations that high standing football team board members (In particular, Luciano Moggi, former Director of football at Juve) had with refereeing officials (In particular, Pierluigi Pairetto, one of 2 guys who helped allocate referees to Serie A league games). The intention of the tapings were originally to uncover allegations of drug use and doping, but instead, the whole Fixing Scandal emerged.

Basically, Moggi used his massive influence and huge number of connections to help certain referees get allocated to certain matches crucial to Juventus' fate.

So yeah, Juve are at the centre of it. I'm not sure exactly how the other clubs are involved (But I think Galliani, former president of Milan and Lotito, former president of Lazio, were heavily implicated, hence their bans), but Juve's stuff basically what got the ball rolling.

3D. Wrestling Clique, Monksdiner, JimmyVan and KnowYourNews' Crafty Old Veteran.

thirty7

Cheers, thanks a lot for that. It's good to see Juve get what they deserve then. I shall go them in Fifa 06 Manager Mode now and get them relegated :P

I wish my sex life was like ECW, first you get a One Night Stand followed by 2 months of nostalgic orgasms and then 6 months of constant sucking.