So the latest is the entire Juve board resigned. It was the only way to strip Moggi and Giraudo of their duties and powers immediately. Shareholders meeting on June 29, at which time the major shareholder, the Agnelli family, will put their own appointees into the positions.
The betting scandal involving the 5 players is being investigated because they were bets placed with an illegal bookie. At this stage they haven't determined which matches the bets involved. Obviously, if they involved Juve matches it would be more serious than if they involved other teams.
(Though I recall Lillee/Marsh betting against Australia in that last Ashes test that England won being laughed off - I might email them some newspaper clippings!)
So magistrates all over Italy are suddenly all investigating Juve. Seems to me it's not a bad way for them to make a name for themselves. Di Pietro did it investigating the mafia, but this is sure to make them much more famous. (Di Pietro, a juventino, was actually in the media calling for a clean-out of Juve management).
The only saving grace in all this for the fans is that it's unlikely Juventus will be relegated to Serie B or C. After all, they're by far the biggest club in Italy, and have signed their TV rights deal with Berlusconi. To lose them from Serie A would be disastrous for the League and Mediaset. Juve coming to town is always sure to pack stadiums for even the smallest club, and the TV ratings are massive. So it really isn't in anyone's interest to remove them from A, and I think you'll find that a solution will be found to punish them but keep them in A.
The other thing, of course, is that this will all drag on and on, so by the time all the appeals are over, things can change. Remember Andreotti? originally found guilty of Mafia associations, but eventually cleared on appeal. These magistrates are the first level. There are many levels of appeal above them, and any findings they make against Juve can be overturned. You'd thing the FIGC would be reluctant to penalise Juve before the court process has finished and, if they did, THAT decision would then be appealed.
And rightly so too. Once sport gets into the realm of the courts, people are innocent till proven guilty, so they have every right to pursue all legal avenues open to them to clear their name. Remember Catania and that whole mess?
This is going to get messier and messier....
I have to say that, as a Juventus fan, I am very, very annoyed.
Because I still maintain that the title won in recent years were deserved. The big clubs always get favoured by refs, because refs want to remain in the spotlight and they know that if they piss off the big clubs they'll be reffing Lecce v Treviso. Mix that with ref errors, of which there are many, and you have an explanation for all the alleged "cheating" that goes on.
But from a diehard fan perspective, it's pretty disappointing when some cawksucker wants to play powergames and compromise the team and club we love, and have it dragged through the mud. There's some 14 million Juventus fans in Italy, and countless millions around Europe and the world, and they are the ones who are suffering right now.
They, and people like Alessandro Del Piero or Ciro Ferrara or Antonio Conte, who have given their heart and soul for the club. Not to mention the memory of people like Gaetano Scirea. That's what these fuckwtis were playing free and easy with. The truth is a side-issue in all this. Even if the courts ultimately clear people's names, it will make no difference. The stench will remain forever.
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Not to mention the complicit inaction of other board members who didn't have the courage to avoid bringing this stain on Juve -- and once there, didn't act to rid itself of it.
