http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-07-05_1059140.html
Heroics won't save suspects
Sports minister and Fed' chief reject amnesty proposal
Italy's sports minister and the emergency supremo of the Soccer Federation (FIGC) on Wednesday bluntly rejected calls for those implicated in a massive match-fixing scandal to be granted an amnesty if the Azzurri win the World Cup .
Four top clubs - champions Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina - face relegation from Serie A if a special FIGC tribunal finds them guilty of misconduct .
The tribunal is also considering the cases of 26 club executives and Federation officials accused of being part of a network set up to steer matches in some clubs' favour .
These individuals, many of whom are also under criminal investigation, risk being banned from the sport for between one and five years .
"The Azzurri have realized soccer can be a dream, but off the field, sporting justice must run its course and punish those who have done wrong," emergency FIGC Chief Guido Rossi said .
"In Italian soccer, there is a side that wins, which is (coach Marcello) Lippi's national team, and an Italy that has to change" .
The amnesty proposal was made by MP Maurizio Paniz, a member of former premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party and a supporter of Juventus. Berlusconi owns one of the sides facing relegation - Milan .
Now that the Azzurri have reached Sunday's World Cup final, the pressure for a reprieve from supporters of the clubs involved is likely to increase .
But Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri made it clear she intends to resist it .
"It is stupid to talk of an amnesty. Soccer needs major reform," she told Donna Moderna magazine. "The national team's matches are one thing, the sporting trials are another. Let's keep them separate" .
Melandri also dismissed Berlusconi's suggestion that Milan had been targeted as a way of getting at him for political reasons. "There is no political conspiracy in the soccer world," she said on a radio show Wednesday. "You defend yourself at trials, not from trials" .
Several Azzurri stars have spoken out against an amnesty too, including AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso .
On Tuesday FIGC prosecutor Stefano Palazzi called on the tribunal to send Juventus down to the third division and asked it to relegate AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina to Serie B .
Palazzi also asked for Juventus, which is in the hottest water because its former executives are believed to have been at the heart of the scam, to be stripped of its 2006 and 2005 titles and to start next season with a six-point penalty .
In return for favours on the pitch, Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo - respectively Juve's former general manager and CEO - stand accused of wining and dining refs and referee-appointers and giving them half-price deals for cars made by Fiat, the Turin auto maker controlled by Juve's owner the Agnelli Group .
The FIGC prosecutor wants Lazio and Fiorentina to start Serie B with a 15-point penalty, while he thinks Milan should kick off the season at -3 .
On Wednesday the accused and their lawyers started their defences .
Among those to speak were former FIGC Chief Franco Carraro, Lazio Chairman Claudio Lotito and Fiorentina owner Diego Della Valle .
All three argued that they were victims of the so-called 'Moggi system', not part of it .
They claimed they had simply worked within the Federation structure to make sure Lazio and Fiorentina were given fair treatment. The FIGC is in a race against time to wrap up the sporting disciplinary process before UEFA holds the draws for next season's European club competitions at the end of the month. Many defendants have expressed concern that the haste will lead to "summary justice" .
Four separate criminal probes into the scandal are expected to reach the trial stage much later. State prosecutors are looking at different elements of the alleged web of corruption, which also extends to illegal betting, false accounting, doping and transfer fraud. The so-called Moggi-gate scandal is the biggest to hit the sport since a 1980 betting case in which Paolo Rossi - later Italy's 1982 World Cup hero - was among the players banned. Lazio and Milan were relegated to Serie B as a result of that scandal.
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