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Top Italian Clubs Indicted for match fixing


Jimbo
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Top Italian Clubs Indicted

 

Updated: 18:24, Thursday June 22, 2006

 

Italian prosecutor have indicted Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio, AC Milan in a match-fixing scandal.

 

The decision to put the clubs on trial could mean they are demoted if found guilty in what is becoming Italy's biggest ever footballing scandal.

 

Federation prosecutor Stefano Palazzi announced no names but said a number of sports figures had also been ordered to stand trial in the sports court.

 

The hearings will begin next Wednesday at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

 

Twenty-six individuals were also ordered to stand trial, but none is a player.

 

No names were given but the group is believed to include officials of Juventus, the team most heavily implicated, other teams and soccer officials.

 

The Turin-based club is accused of manipulating Serie A by handpicking referees.

 

The announcement came as Italy celebrated the national team's 2-1 victory of the Czech Republic in the World Cup in Germany.

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it means juve are fucked. theyll get relegated to regional level, seria c??

 

the other probably docked points and heavily fined at best, relegated to seria b at worst.

 

 

i'll have that kovac from juve thank you very much.

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THE BACKGROUND

 

Italian football has been thrown into disarray by the allegations with champions Juventus at the centre of the investigation.

 

Juve clinched their 29th Italian championship on Sunday 14 May when they beat Reggina 2-0, which ensured they finished three points ahead of rivals AC Milan.

 

But they are suspected of match-fixing in the 2004/05 season and could even be relegated to Serie B if they are found guilty.

 

Former Juve general manager Luciano Moggi is at the centre of the scandal after Italian papers published transcripts of calls from 2004 in which he tells referees' chief Pierluigi Pairetto which officials he wants assigned to Juventus games.

 

The entire Juventus board resigned after recorded telephone conversations between Moggi and high-ranked Italian football federation officials were published in Italian newspapers.

 

Moggi resigned on Sunday 14 May and he has now been placed under formal investigation for suspected false accounting and tax evasion.

 

On Thursday 18 May, Italy's financial police searched the club's offices and went through documents in the presence of Turin prosecutor Bruno Tinti.

 

 

The houses of Moggi and former Juve director Antonio Giraudo and those of current players Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Fabio Cannavaro were also searched.

 

Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has also spoken to investigators in Parma as part of the probe into football gambling.

 

At an emergency meeting on Friday 19 May, Juventus named Carlo Sant'Albano as their acting managing director until 29 June, when shareholders will decide on a new board.

 

The Turin club has lost more than 40% of its value since 9 May, before its board resigned, and is now worth about £112m.

 

In Naples, the Italian football federation will meet with investigators as they began a race against time to conclude their own inquiry in time to enter Italian clubs for next season's Champions League and Uefa Cup.

 

Meanwhile, AC Milan have denied any wrongdoing after the Corriere della Sera newspaper published phone taps which suggested the club had tried to influence the appointment of referees for their matches.

 

Milan's lawyer said in a statement the phone taps had been "wrongly interpreted".

 

Italy coach Marcello Lippi has been given a vote of confidence by Italian football federation commissioner Guido Rossi.

 

Lippi was questioned for three-and-a-half hours at the end of May as part of an investigation into the dealings of football agents GEA.

 

Prosecutors were trying to establish whether Lippi was pressured by Moggi to call up certain players, and whether he was in fact influenced.

 

Moggi's son, Alessandro Moggi, heads GEA World and Lippi's son, Davide Lippi, also works for the agency.

 

The host of Italy's most popular television football show, Aldo Biscardi, has resigned after allegations he collaborated with Moggi to boost the image of Juventus.

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If they do get relagated we might not get Juve's Star players, but some team will and that could lead to them having a extra player going spair the could maybe loan us for a while. :lol:

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If they do get relagated we might not get Juve's Star players, but some team will and that could lead to them having a extra player going spair the could maybe loan us for a while. :lol:

152232[/snapback]

 

 

Or a cheeky loan from any of the clubs named, until they are promoted to Serie A again.

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Feel for Fiorentina fans, they just had to climb back into Serie A and now they're going back down again!

152243[/snapback]

 

 

The hearing doesn't begin until next wednesday so nothing is decided yet, and Juventus look to be in hotter water than the other teams.

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