Juve, Fiorentina and Lazio relegated to Serie B

Juventus will be demoted to Serie B, with a deduction of fifteen points, for their part in the match-fixing scandal that has rocked Italy, according to reports.

Fiorentina and Lazio are also set to be demoted when the official verdict from the trial is announced later today.

While reports in the Italian press claim that AC Milan will not suffer a similar fate, they will be chucked out of the Champions League – as will both Juve and Fiorentina.

It remains unclear which club will be adjudged to have 'won' Serie A last season. Juve will be stripped of the championship, but it is inconceivable that it would then be handed to the tainted Milan instead. City rivals Inter Milan, who finished third, may yet be handed their first title since 1989.

Although Juve have publicly vowed not to sell their star players in the event of relegation, demotion to Serie B is expected to cost the club £50m in lost revenue and could prompt the Turin giants to sell as many as seven first-team players.

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City rivals Inter Milan, who finished third, may yet be handed their first title since 1989.

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Faced with a massive drop in income, Juventus have reluctantly decided that to balance the books they will have to sell Italy's World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, winger Mauro Camoranesi and defender Gianluca Zambrotta.

France internationals Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram and David Trezeguet would also be put up for sale as the Serie A champions tried to offset the potential loss of £50 million which would accompany a drop to the Italian second division. A Juventus spokesman said: "The club will do what it has to do to ensure it's competitive whatever the decision of the sporting tribunal in Rome."

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.geek said:

Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram and David Trezeguet would also be put up for sale

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icyrus said:

There will be no shortage of takers for Milan or Juventus's players. Like I said, I very much doubt any of them will be relegated.

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icyrus said:

So Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina all relegated so Serie B plus 30 points docked for Juventus and stripped of their last 2 league titles.

AC Milan escape with 15 point deduction for next season.

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Juventus, Lazio, and Fiorentina have been relegated from Serie A as a result of the match-fixing scandal.

AC Milan have avoided relegation, but will start next season with a 15-point deficit, and have had 44 points taken from their tally for the 2005-06 season.

Juventus have been stripped of their Serie A titles for each of the last two seasons. They will start next campaign with a 30-point deficit.

Fiorentina will start in Serie B with a 12-point deficit and Lazio a seven-point deficit.

The rulings mean that none of the four clubs will be allowed to play in Europe next season.

In addition to the punishments handed to the clubs, a number of the individual directors were suspended.

Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi has been suspended from all football for five years.

Adriano Galliani, who was AC Milan vice-president, has been suspended for one year.

The four clubs will have up to three days to appeal to the Federal Court but a final verdict has to be announced before July 25, when the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) must give UEFA, Europe's football governing body, the list of teams that will compete in the continental club competitions in the 2006/07 campaign.

The scandal was uncovered as a result of a criminal investigation that was launched before the start of the 2004/05 campaign by the Naples prosecutors' office.

Telephone conversations between Moggi and a referees supremo in charge of the appointments of officials during the 2004/05 season were tapped.

Prosecutors based their probe on hundreds of bugged telephone calls between referee selectors, game officials and Moggi.

At the close of trading on Milan's stock exchange on Friday, Lazio shares had dropped 9.68% to 0.28 euros while Juventus went down to 1.45 euros - a fall of 1.15%.

An estimated 500 Lazio fans protested outside Rome's Parco dei Principi hotel as Federal Appeal Commission president Cesare Ruperto read out the verdicts inside.

More than 300 Fiorentina fans met up outside the Artemio Franchi stadium as a sign of protest but it was a different story in Turin with few Juventus supporters turning up at the club's headquarters in Via Galileo Ferraris.

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Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli reacted angrily and vowed to appeal against the club's relegation following the investigation into match-fixing.

The Italian Federal Appeal Commission found Juve, Lazio, Fiorentina and AC Milan guilty of match-fixing with the Turin side hit hardest by the verdict after being relegated to Serie B and having to start next season with a 30-point deficit, as well as being stripped of the league titles they won in the past two seasons.

Cobolli Gigli has reacted angrily to the news and vowed to fight the punishment. He said: "We could have expected relegation to the second division but to be also handed a 30-point deduction is almost like relegation to the third division. We will appeal."

Fiorentina and Lazio were also relegated and will start the campaign with 12 and seven-point deficits respectively, while AC Milan retain their Serie A status but will start next season with a 15-point deficit.

Milan have also been docked 44 points from their tally last season.

"This verdict is unheard of," added Gigli.

"We expected a balanced sentence not only in form but in substance, our expectations were different ones."

Fiorentina also immediately announced their intentions to appeal against the punishment.

"Fiorentina take note of the verdict given by the Federal Appeal Commission but retains it profoundly unjust," said a statement on the club's official website. "Fiorentina wishes to reiterate the absolute correctness of the club and of their own executives."

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Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to make a major transfer swoop on Italy's scandal-hit Serie B.

Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio are all facing up to life in the second tier of the Italian game following the punishments handed down on Friday in the match-fixing inquiry.

"It is something we are addressing," he said. "At the moment, we are not exactly clear who is available and what the circumstances are. Some clubs might be looking at loan situations, believing they will get straight back into Serie A, so that is a possibility. But we also don't know whether players are available for sale or on free transfers.

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hj2k_x said:

We certainly need some fresh blood in there after last season's disappointments

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