juventus demoted,milan loses points for match fixing (1 Viewer)

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salvatore_

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May 16, 2006
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Juventus was stripped of its past two Italian titles and demoted to the second division for its part in a soccer match-fixing scandal. Lazio and Fiorentina were also relegated, while AC Milan will stay in the top league.

All the teams are barred from taking part in European club competitions such as the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, said Cesare Ruperto, the head of the seven-judge panel hearing the case, in Rome's Hotel Parco dei Principi. Lazio fans attacked court and club officials as they came out of the hotel.

Milan, owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, will start the next Serie A season with a 15-point handicap. Juventus will begin in Serie B 30 points down, with Fiorentina cropped 12 points and Rome's Lazio docked seven points. If Juventus were to win its first 10 matches, it's likely to be at the bottom of the standings because a victory is worth three points.

The ruling may trigger a player exodus and threatens television and sponsorship revenue from companies including News Corp. and Nike Inc. Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and Brazil's Kaka were among 29 players from the four clubs that played at the World Cup, which Italy won five days ago.

``This has put Italian football in the worst situation it has ever faced,'' said Alex Fynn, a London-based consultant who has advised European national federations on the sale of television rights, in an interview. ``It's in crisis.''

Outrage

Turin-based Juventus, which is appealing the ruling, received the harshest sentence in Italy's biggest sports scandal in 25 years. Prosecutor Stefano Palazzi had requested demotion to the third tier.

``I consider the sentence outrageous,'' Juventus Chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli said in an interview on Italian TV network RAI Uno.

The teams were on trial following allegations that officials at the clubs influenced the selection of referees. The revelations led to the board of Juventus resigning May 11. Juventus is controlled by Ifil SpA, the holding company of the Agnelli family, the founders and biggest shareholders in carmaker Fiat SpA.

Europe's fourth-biggest team by revenue, Juventus earned about 80 percent of its 229 million euros ($289 million) in sales last year through TV and sponsorship deals and has multiyear contracts worth more than 600 million euros.

Player Sales

The accords, including a 12-year deal with Nike that guarantees Juventus 187 million euros, can be renegotiated or canceled if Juventus gets demoted or convicted of wrongdoing. Juventus shares have fallen about 35 percent since the start of May when news of the investigation became public.

The club may also lose many of its star players, who eat up more than half of the company's annual revenue. Fabio Capello, who wasn't targeted in the probe, resigned as coach July 4 to take the same job at Real Madrid and said he'd try to lure some of his former players to Spain. Madrid, the world's richest team, on July 11 said it's in advanced talks to acquire Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro, a Juventus player voted the second-best at the World Cup.

Juventus, Milan and Fiorentina will also lose their places in next season's Champions League, forfeiting more revenue. Juventus earned 53.5 million Swiss francs ($43.2 million) in prize money from the tournament in 2002-03, while Milan, which won the final against its Turin rival, made 48.6 million francs, excluding ticket revenue and broadcast income.

The demotions mean AS Roma, Palermo in Sicily and Chievo from Verona will play in the European competition.

Phones Tapped

Roma shares have more than doubled since the start of May, when revelations of taped phone calls between Luciano Moggi, the former Juventus general manager, and the soccer federation's former head of referee selection about assigning officials to games triggered the probe.

In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Moggi said he was trying to protect Juventus from unfair treatment rather seek favoritism from referees.

Lazio Chairman Claudio Lotito and Fiorentina Chairman Diego della Valle, chairman of luxury shoe and handbag maker Tod's SpA, were also found guilty of match fixing and unsportsmanlike conduct, while Milan Chairman Adriano Galliani was found guilty of just the lesser charge of unsportsmanlike conduct.

Moggi was fined 50,000 euros ($63,200) and barred from soccer for five years, Della Valle got a four-year ban, Lotito got 3 1/2 years and Galliani one year.

Fast-Track Process

The clubs were convicted by a special sports tribunal after a trial that lasted less than two weeks. The league organized the fast-track process to dole out the penalties before the deadlines for organizing next year's Italian league and Champions League.

The judges made their decision based on evidence gathered in criminal investigations under way that will take much longer to resolve.

Cesare Zaccone, Juventus's lawyer, testified July 6 that the club shouldn't be harshly punished for the actions of former executives and said demotion to B would be an ``acceptable penalty.''

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