D-Day for Italian Football

kinaldo

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-2237096,00.html

Players braced for fallout from scandal
By GABRIELE MARCOTTI
IN ROME THIS afternoon, just as Italy wind down their group E match against the Czech Republic, prosecutors will charge the clubs and individuals involved in the country’s match-fixing scandal.

The eventual outcome could see some unfamiliar names among Italy’s representatives in the Champions League and Uefa Cup next season as the four clubs directly involved in the scandal — Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio — face punishments from relegation to points deductions.

Thirteen members of the Italy squad play for the four clubs and their future is in question, particularly those who play for Juventus, who are likely to be relegated. Players such as Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Mauro Camoranesi and Fabio Cannavaro will probably move on.

The punishment handed to Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina — whose alleged crimes are lesser than those of Juventus — are likely to be directly proportional. If Juventus are sent down to Serie C1 — Italy’s third division — then the trio will likely be relegated from the top tier. Otherwise, the three clubs will face points penalties that, in the case of Milan and Fiorentina, will deprive them of Champions League football and could yet lead to a mini fire-sale of stars such as Kaká and Luca Toni.

As it stands, Italy’s list of teams in Europe next season is likely to include Chievo and Palermo in the Champions League and Ascoli and Empoli in the Uefa Cup.

Ronan|Raven

I hope they get the book thrown at them and given good harsh penalites. Would be interesting to see Palermo in the CL though!

woodyg

the sh*t will hit the fan. Why do i get the feeling this will be brushed under the carpet!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/4993482.stm

We can only persume that this will go alot further than was originally seen

RE*AC*TOR

Well, if any of those nice players fancy coming to merseyside to play in the CL next year - thay will be most welcome.

If it goes ahead as suggested, it will be the biggest scandal ever to hit European football.

Attractive Nun

It would be a bit of a shame to see clubs like Juventus and AC Milan ruined. But I suppose they deserve it. Long live La Liga!

PHB

AC Milan won't be ruined. They won't get relegated.
The article goes a bit too far. It's unlikely Juve will get relegated to anything but Serie B, the Italian FA are trying to be honest, but they aren't stupid. A relegation saves face, and keeps a world class club in Italy.

The other clubs will probably face points deductions if found guilty, meaning they might miss out on CL, but I'd imagine Milan will still be in Europe.

D-Day is still weeks away

zAbbo

We'll know by the end of the World Cup what the punishment is.

D-Day isn't until 7-9th of July

BaZmO*

Chelsea cheque book at the ready.......

MonkeyTennis

everyones chequebook at the ready!!

Big Nelly

BaZmO* wrote:

Chelsea cheque book at the ready.......

Cant see Chelsea moving for many of the players except Zambrotta maybe. Apart from that Utd will try for half the midfield and maybe a winger.

BaZmO*

Bench Warmers - Chelsea style?

iregk

I think most of the Serie A haters are shouting the prophets of doom a little too early. Lets look at this how it really is.

Juventus and Milan are two of the biggest most recognised brands in world football and as a result bring a lot of money and exposure to Calcio. It is in the interest of the FIGC for the league to keep these two clubs where they are. Nobody really wants to see Juve in Serie C1 or Milan in Serie B. The revenue that will be lost from sponsor ship, tv contracts and attendances would be too much of a blow.

Most likely they will dock the clubs points and in the very worst case senario relegate Juve but make sure they get back up within a year!!!

Think of it this way. Do you honestly think the FA would have the balls to relegate United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea? The 4 teams that bring the most cash in? Nope!

PHB

Thing is, what player is going to go from Title winning Juve, to be a bench warmer at Chelsea?

Take a look at Juve's squad:

Ibrahimovic - Attacker - 23
Vieira - Midfielder - 29
Buffon - GK - 27
Emerson - Midfielder - 29
Thuram - Defender - 33
Zambrotta - Defender - 29
Nedved - Midfielder - 32
Zebina - Defender - 26
Del Piero - Attacker - 30
Cannavaro - Defender - 31
Camoranesi - Midfielder - 28
Trezeguet - Attacker - 27
Mutu - Attacker - 26
Balzaretti - Defender - 23
Chiellini - Midfielder - 24

So, how many of them would say Chelsea be after?
A striker? Mourinho has said they have enough.
Midfielder? AMC? Nobody they'd want
DMC? Makelele + Essien for one spot? Who'd they use?
Defender? Maybe Zambrotta, maybe.
GK? Cech already.

None of those players will go to Chelsea.

If they are relegated, I expect United to bid for:

Emerson - Midfielder - 29
Camoranesi - Midfielder - 28
Cannavaro - Defender - 31 [ Only if Chelsea do a last minute bid for Rio, as many United fans expect to happen ]

Neither of those two would be effected by Chelsea.

Even if we don't get any of them it still opens up the market hugely.

For example, if milan bought Emerson, then we could get Gattuso. Or if Barca bought Camoranesi, we could get Xavi, etc. etc. etc.
It opens up the entire market, especially in terms of the missing property of defensive or complete midfielders.

Vokes

Would like Liverpool to take Zambrotta and maybe turn him back into his original right-winger position.

EDIT: PHB, i think most of ages should be a year older. It might effect their values further.

Serbian

I would have thought United would be interested in Buffon considering Van der Sar is 35 or so. I also think that Mutu is a quality striker, I'd like to see him back in the Premiership personally.

evilhomer

Any news from the press conference yet?

I don't see anything on any of the big sites.

eirebhoy

I'm sure Zambrotta would get most interest but Cannavaro is imo the best centre half in the world and has a few years left in him.

kinaldo

ah bollox, was hoping for italy to get knocked out today so this would have more resonance

Drag00n79

News Conference new time is 6.30 pm according to Five Live.

Drag00n79

Five Live just reporting now from the Italy team camp in Germany. Apparently it is the four teams as mentioned by Marcotti in the London Times, namely Milan, Juventus, Fiorentina, and Lazio. The most likely punishment is relegation to Serie B.

eirebhoy

A hearing on Wednesday for the 4 clubs.

mike65

from reuters

Italy prosecutor indicts Juventus, Milan, others
Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:35 PM BST

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's football prosecutor on Thursday ordered Serie A clubs Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina to stand trial in the nation's biggest sports scandal in a quarter of a century.

In a brief statement, the Football Federation said prosecutor Stefano Palazzi had charged a total of 30 "subjects" for sporting fraud and violations of fairness and probity, charges which can be punished by fines, bans and relegations.

The statement did not give a further breakdown of who was charged or identify individuals.

Mike.

vorbis

only biggest in quarter of a century??
what happened in seventies??

DerekD Goldfish

vorbis wrote:

only biggest in quarter of a century??
what happened in seventies??

in the Early 80's Milan and one other club(possibly Lazio) were relegated to Serie B for match rigging

evilhomer

DerekD Goldfish wrote:

in the Early 80's Milan and one other club(possibly Lazio) were relegated to Serie B for match rigging

And Paolo Rossi (the golden boy of Italian football) got a two year ban for his part in proceedings.

Since they want a decision made by early July, I wonder if any of the Italian squad will be called back from the world cup for questioning??

Buffon is apparently a prime suspect.

Mr. Presentable

evilhomer wrote:

Buffon is apparently a prime suspect.

No. Buffon is in a different investigation, for betting on sports (illegal since 2004 in Italy)

vorbis

Sounded like he was making it up but an italian over here was telling me how Buffon used to bet on the correct scorelines! He said matches were rigged to that extent, e.g. 2 - 0. Sounded a bit far fetched to me.

eirebhoy

vorbis wrote:

Sounded like he was making it up but an italian over here was telling me how Buffon used to bet on the correct scorelines! He said matches were rigged to that extent, e.g. 2 - 0. Sounded a bit far fetched to me.

How would it be possible to do that? How can you tell the team that's going to lose not to score? They'd want to be paying the losing players a lot of money to do it. It really was nothing too serious but it was illegal. Put it this way, if Sunderland did what Juve did last season they'd still be getting relegated. I don't think the league would be much different if there was no illegal activity going on.

Mr. Presentable

Nobody's accused of bribing any refs, just of influencing which ones got selected. No one's accused of fixing matches either. However, they are all bent bastards.

Juve to C, Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina to B.

Zebra3

All wil probably go to Serie B.

Hope British Eurosport2 still have the rights to it next season. They probably paid a pittance for it!!!

iFight

I heard about that on the radio earlier, it will be good to see the smaller teams in the Champions League and all, but surely the league will turn to muck without the stars

godtabh

No one has asked the question about Inter Milan. If Juve go down and AC lose points do they win the league. Its been a long wait but after watching the games this seasons and seeing some of the dodgy refes who knows what might have happened.

Juve have got away with other things like the doping scandal so I reckon they'll get away with this.

ghost26ie

kearnsr wrote:

No one has asked the question about Inter Milan. If Juve go down and AC lose points do they win the league. Its been a long wait but after watching the games this seasons and seeing some of the dodgy refes who knows what might have happened.

Juve have got away with other things like the doping scandal so I reckon they'll get away with this.

they will probably get stripped of their title and champions league spot.

Drag00n79

iFight wrote:

I heard about that on the radio earlier, it will be good to see the smaller teams in the Champions League and all, but surely the league will turn to muck without the stars

A lot of "the stars" won't stay with their clubs in Serie B, I imagine, if it comes to that.

PHB

A lot of "the stars" won't stay with their clubs in Serie B, I imagine, if it comes to that.

You sure? Kaka just signed a 5 year deal with Milan!

DerekD Goldfish

PHB wrote:

You sure? Kaka just signed a 5 year deal with Milan!

I wonder were Milan clever enough to put in a regegation wage drop clause

Vokes

PHB wrote:

You sure? Kaka just signed a 5 year deal with Milan!

Milan, if relegated, could easily loan Kaka out for a year (R. Madrid, maybe?) and then take him back assuming they get promoted again.

They could probably do that with a lot of their superstar players.

eirebhoy

Nedved said he'd like to stay if Juve got relegated.

PHB

In reality, I don't think there is any chance anybody but Juve will get relegated. I could see MIlan getting points deductions and keeping them out of the CL, but most importantly, giving the two titles to Inter.

How will Inter celebrate? Do they celebrate? Do Juve's medals get taken back?

ghost26ie

i thought i read somewhere this week that Juve were the only ones up on the biggest charges, that the other 3 were on lesser charges.

PHB

Vieira reminding everybody why he is so good, and will possibly be brought back to the premiership

B00MSTICK

Nedved will retire at the end of next season afaik and Del Piero has already said he'll stay even id they're relegated to Serie B

godtabh

PHB wrote:

How will Inter celebrate? Do they celebrate? Do Juve's medals get taken back?

Its been so long since inter wont the league they might not remember how to celebrate. If any celebrations happen I think I'd over. I'm due a holiday!

eirebhoy

Fabio Cannavaro is ready to commit himself to demotion-threatened Juventus by signing a new contract.
more...

btw - I know Cannavaro is tiny for a centre but didn't think he was that small. :eek:

Juventus goalkeeper Gigi Buffon could be playing in the Premiership with Arsenal next season, his agent has confirmed.
more...

PHB

A good explanation on the situation from ESPN:

Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio are all being investigated on the count of violating Articles One and/or Six of the Sports Justice Code.

Milan are indirectly involved and are only being investigated under suspicion of violating Article One of the code.

Article One is a general rule which explains that `whoever is subject to the observation of the federation's rules must do so according to the principles of fairness, correctness and honesty'.

Article Six explains that `the execution, through any means, of acts aimed at altering the course or result of a match, or at ensuring an advantage to anybody in the league table is a punishable offence'.

If any of the clubs are found guilty of violating Article Six, they face the minimum penalty of automatic relegation to an inferior level.

An infringement of Article One is punishable by the docking of points in the subsequent season.

therecklessone

PHB wrote:

A good explanation on the situation from ESPN:

Sounds to me like Juve to be relegated, the other three get points deductions next year so.

PHB

Well, if Juventus, Fiorentina or Lazio are found guilty under setion 6, they have to be relegated.

For them not to be relegated, they have to be found innocent.

therecklessone

PHB wrote:

Well, if Juventus, Fiorentina or Lazio are found guilty under setion 6, they have to be relegated.

For them not to be relegated, they have to be found innocent.

My bad, mixed up my 6 and 1 when read the first sentence.

I'm surprised TBH, from what I've read of Italian football, both Juve and Milan have been the ones with read influence over the administration of the Italian game. I'm particularly surprised at Fiorentina (if found guilty) considering the predicament they found themselves in the summer of 2002.

Chucky the tree

Juve to be relegated and start with a points deduction. Lazio and fiorentina to be relegated and start with no points deduction. Ac to start with about a 15 point deduction.

All wont be allowed into Europe. SO next season inter, roma, chievo and palermo will probaly be in the champions league.

Bacchus

Has a date been set for when we'll know what punishment Juve & co will get?

Mitch Connor

Bacchus wrote:

Has a date been set for when we'll know what punishment Juve & co will get?

As far as i know, its Friday July 7th