Italian Giants Stunned by Match-fixing Punishments
July 15, 2006
Juventus were also deducted 30 points from their total for next season and stripped of their last two league titles. Lazio and Fiorentina were penalized seven points and 12 points respectively.
AC Milan will stay in Serie A but will lose 15 points and will also be kicked out of the Champions League.
The decisions were handed out just five days after Italy won the World Cup with a penalty shoot-out victory over France in Berlin.
Juve will appeal
Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli said he was stunned by the decision and that the club will appeal.
"It's incredible," he said. "We were expecting a fairer sentence. We don't understand how we can be excluded from the championship."
"Juve is the only team which has clearly shown a desire to change. To be in Serie B with a 30-point deduction is absolutely unacceptable," Gigli said. "We do not understand the different legal treatment applied to
the four cases under consideration. As the facts have clearly demonstrated, the episodes relating to Juventus under the observation of the sporting tribunal are without question comparable to those with which the other teams are charged.
"The difference being that in our case only two matches have been called into question. Therefore our priority is to look after the interests of our fans and those of the minor share holders, and we will do this straight away, by appealing to the Consiglio Federale (of the Italian soccer federation)."
"Profound injustice"
Luciano Moggi, the former director of Juventus whose attempts to have specific referees assigned to his club's matches sparked the scandal, was hit with a five-year suspension.
"I am not bitter for myself, but for the teams implicated and for their supporters," he said on Friday.
"No match was fixed, no referees were favored. It is why Juventus and the other clubs, but especially the fans, are frustrated by this sentence."
Fiorentina were equally angry.
"It's a profound injustice," the club said in a statement. "Out of respect for the city, the fans and the dignity of all those concerned, Fiorentina will battle with all its means to have the light shone on the facts and on its absolute innocence concerning all accusations of fraud."
Lazio president Claudio Lotito, who was handed a three-year ban from all sporting activities, said he was stunned by the club's punishment.
"It's a sentence we were not expecting," he said. "Lazio has never tried to violate ethical rules."
Verdicts could lead to exodus of top players
The verdicts on Friday were handed down by a disciplinary panel made up of five retired judges.
The scandal might lead to a mass exodus of top players from the three relegated clubs.
"I don't know if I'm going to stay with Juventus," said Azzuri goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon ahead of the World Cup final against France earlier this month.
AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso said: "Giving an amnesty to the guilty parties in this scandal would be unfair and disappointing to millions of fans awaiting these sentences."