Juventus Relegated to Third Division?

[funk99]

Prosecutor wants Juventus relegated
Tue 04 Jul, 12:14 PM

Paolo Bergamo
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ROME (Reuters) - The prosecutor in Italy's match-fixing trial told a sports tribunal on Tuesday he wanted four top clubs thrown out of Italian football's top league and champions Juventus relegated to at least the third division.

On the third day of Italy's biggest sporting trial, Stefano Palazzi called for Juventus to be stripped of the Serie A titles it won in the last two seasons and relegated to "below Serie B".
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AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio should all go down to Serie B, he said.

The prospect of Italy's most successful team plummeting into the also-rans of football sent a shiver through investors.

The Milan stock exchange suspended Juve's shares and the stock was indicated down 13.63 percent at 1.16 euros at 11:30 a.m.

The national squad, which contains five Juventus players, play World Cup hosts Germany in the semi-final in Dortmund at 9.00 p.m. (1900 GMT).

After two days of procedural wrangling, the sports trial began in earnest on Tuesday with some of the 26 defendants -- club officials, football federation staff, referees and linesmen -- personally pleading their case at Rome's Olympic stadium.

Former Juve chief executive Antonio Giraudo was one of the first to speak.

"All kinds of things go on in football: people give Rolexes to referees, people fix the accounts. What I'm saying is that this is an environment in which you have to protect yourself," he said.

Palazzi asked for Giraudo to be handed a five-year ban plus a 5,000 euro (3,500 pound) fine for every instance of sporting fraud.

He asked for the same punishment for Luciano Moggi, Juve's former general manager, for brothers Diego and Andrea Della Valle, the owner and president of Fiorentina, and for Claudio Lotito, the chairman of Lazio.

He also asked for all four teams to have points docked at the start of next season.

The trial began last Thursday but was quickly adjourned. Proceedings resumed on Monday but that day was also taken up with objections from defence lawyers and no defendants or witnesses were questioned.

The tribunal has said it aims to deliver its verdicts on July 10, the day after the World Cup final in Berlin.

All the accused have denied wrongdoing.

Those found guilty can appeal, but the appeals process must be finished by July 27 -- the deadline set by UEFA for the FIGC to submit the list of teams for next season's Champions League and UEFA Cup competition.

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/060704/2/l756.html

[Joe']

Yeah...it is true. We'll go to Serie C1 or Serie B if they find proves. But it's not the team's fault. We could have won the two Scudetto's without Moggi's dirty deals. Juventus loss about €100 million because of this scandal and because of Moggi, and the players declared in public that they didn't know anything about this.
Anyways, there are not many proves. I mean, they've intercepted only 250 (out of 9 thousand) phone calls from Moggi's phone number only, and it seems to me that they've intercepted only those which they wanted, and not the ones in which, perhaps, Moggi and the call receiver talk about something that could cancel every thing they've talked in the other phone calls made before.

[Anthony15]

Bout time. Lets see if they'll bribe Serie C1 teams to get out of it

[Abctest123]

If their squad stays good enough, they'll be back to the top league in no time, one year for each year they make it one division up.

[Jing]

the announcers just wouldnt shut up about it last night...

shouldnt they have a hard time getting back to Series A since if they drop to Series C then those players will become automatic free agents?

[funk99]

no they want to trade them to Real Madrid for like 50 million. 3 of them. Wood take them at least 3 years to get back up to Serie A

[Joe']

Some players are staying in the team even if it will go to the Serie C1 (Third Division) or even Serie C2 (Fourth Division). Some of them are Del Piero and maybe Nedved (who said it in an interview for Rai Sport, after the Czech Republic-Italy game) and Cannavaro.
The ones that are surely going away are coach Fabio Capello (new coach of Real Madrid CF), Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mutu, maybe Lillian Thuram (retiring) and Patrick Vieira. The others I don't know.
Anyways, as I said before they don't have many proves so no one knows if we, along with AC Milan and Fiorentina, will go to Serie B/C1/C2.
The Serie A will have serious issues if Juventus and Milan go to an inferior Serie since they're the teams who manage the major amount of money, and stuff (i.e. the TV contracts, etc.), and because Adriano Galliani, the vice-president of AC Milan, is the actual president of the Lega Calcio too.
I just hope they don't penalize us too much (sending us to C1 or C2).
In Serie B it would be easier because there would not be a huge money penalization, and we'd still be able to buy new young players and stuff.
We'd still return to Serie A in one year. It would take us two/three years to return to Serie A from Serie C1 and Serie C2 respectively.

[J@3]

I really can't see Cannavaro staying with them, I think Del Piero and Nedved will because they're near retirement anyway, but Cannavaro would be a waste of talent.

[Joe']

He would still get the money he got last season...That's the thing that matters to him.

[Matt]

he can probably get that money elsewhere.

this is all too funny.

[J@3]

He would still get the money he got last season...That's the thing that matters to him.

That sucks, he's one of my favourites.

Since you're a Juve fan, where do you think the majority of players will end up? Guys like Ibrahimovic, Zambrotta, Emerson etc.

[funk99]

Real Madrid, Barca, Chelsea lol

[dada]

Zlatan is interested in Real the last I heard so that would be wonderful if he went there.

[Joe']

I'm pretty sure Ibrahimovic will end up playing in the Premier League. Like all quality young players (Pirlo and Gattuso of AC Milan will play for Manchester United if Milan goes to Serie B too).
Anyways, even if Juve wouldn't have to go to Serie B/C1/C2 he said he wants to play for another team, in the 2006/2007 season.
Zambrotta, Emerson, Cannavaro (if he doesn't stay) will end up in Spain, or (like Toni of Fiorentina) they will end up playing for one of the worst Football Organizations in Italy: Inter FC.

he can probably get that money elsewhere.

All Spanish clubs (except Real Madrid) offer him a lower ammount of money than Juve. The only clubs that would be able to pay him more than Juve are Manchester United, Chelsea, Real, and Inter (but he said that he will not return to Inter because he hates Moratti). Maybe he ends up playing for Real Madrid because of Capello, but, I don't know... Real is planning to get lots of players, I don't know if they'll pick up Fabio.