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Setbacks are kick behind as Serie A season starts
Italy - 08 September, 2006
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Finally, this weekend, at long last Italy's Serie A will kick off the season.
Italy's fans had little more 24 hours to enjoy the World Cup victory over France on July 9 before the first line of judgments in the Serie A match-fixing scandal started coming through.
The ensuing legal battles pushed the start of the championship back two weeks to September 9, but could have been worse.
With just over a week to go, Juventus was threatening to take their case to the civil courts, raising the prospect of yet more delays.
The problems began in early May with the publication of intercepted phone calls between the general manager of Juventus, Luciano Moggi, and senior officials at the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), discussing refereeing appointments during the 2004-2005 season.
FIGC president Franco Carraro and the entire Juventus board had resigned. Officials at AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were also dragged in.
The former head of Italy's stock market regulator, Guido Rossi, was appointed emergency administator of the FIGC. Francesco Borrelli, the magistrate who conducted Italy's 'Clean Hands' probe into political corruption in the early Nineties, was named its chief investigator.
The verdicts: Juventus was sent to Serie B with minus 17 points. AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina stayed in Serie A, but with points penalties and, in the case of the latter two, exclusion from this season's European competitions.
Juventus fans complained bitterly that their team had been made a scapegoat. And the club took the banner, as its aggressive legal bid to be reinstated in Serie A flew in the face of its contrite hearing during the first trial, when its lawyer said an acceptable punishment would be relegation to Serie B with penalty points.
Fiorentina and Lazio are out of Europe; Roma ise back in the Champions League; and for the first time in their storied history, Juventus are out of Serie A, a potential financial disaster.
Italy's fans had little more 24 hours to enjoy the World Cup victory over France on July 9 before the first line of judgments in the Serie A match-fixing scandal started coming through.
The ensuing legal battles pushed the start of the championship back two weeks to September 9, but could have been worse.
With just over a week to go, Juventus was threatening to take their case to the civil courts, raising the prospect of yet more delays.
The problems began in early May with the publication of intercepted phone calls between the general manager of Juventus, Luciano Moggi, and senior officials at the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), discussing refereeing appointments during the 2004-2005 season.
FIGC president Franco Carraro and the entire Juventus board had resigned. Officials at AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were also dragged in.
The former head of Italy's stock market regulator, Guido Rossi, was appointed emergency administator of the FIGC. Francesco Borrelli, the magistrate who conducted Italy's 'Clean Hands' probe into political corruption in the early Nineties, was named its chief investigator.
The verdicts: Juventus was sent to Serie B with minus 17 points. AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina stayed in Serie A, but with points penalties and, in the case of the latter two, exclusion from this season's European competitions.
Juventus fans complained bitterly that their team had been made a scapegoat. And the club took the banner, as its aggressive legal bid to be reinstated in Serie A flew in the face of its contrite hearing during the first trial, when its lawyer said an acceptable punishment would be relegation to Serie B with penalty points.
Fiorentina and Lazio are out of Europe; Roma ise back in the Champions League; and for the first time in their storied history, Juventus are out of Serie A, a potential financial disaster.
Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 -
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