ROME The prosecutors in Italy's soccer scandal trial are seeking to demote Juventus, the reigning champion, from the country's top league to the third tier and strip the team of two league titles.

Two other top-four finishers of last season, AC Milan and Fiorentina, could be demoted to the second-tier league, as could Lazio for its alleged role in a match-fixing scandal.

Further troubling Juventus was the resignation of its coach, Fabio Capello, who announced Tuesday that he would be leaving Juventus to coach Real Madrid next season.

On Tuesday, the third day of hearings before a sports tribunal in Rome, the lead prosecutor, Stefano Palazzi, outlined a package of penalties that was in line with the harshest of expectations.

Penalties proposed for the 26 individuals, including club officials, football federation staff members, referees and linesmen, who are accused of involvement include one- to five-year suspensions and fines of €5,000, or almost $6,400, for each act of fraud committed.

In addition to demotion from Serie A, all four teams risk point penalties that would further worsen their lot at the start of next season. If the prosecutors have their way, Juventus faces a six- point penalty at the start of next season in Serie C and the revocation of the Serie A championships it won in 2004- 05 and 2005-06. Lazio and Fiorentina face 15-point penalties, and AC Milan could be penalized three points, all of which would take place in Serie B.

A former general manager of Juventus, Luciano Moggi - considered by prosecutors to be the ringleader of the match-fixing - and the former chief executive, Antonio Giraudo, face five-year suspensions and fines. Adriano Galliani, the vice president of AC Milan and former soccer league president, faces a five-year suspension and fines, as do the owner and president of Fiorentina, Diego and Andrea Della Valle, and the president of Lazio, Claudio Lotito. A string of referees and league officials face suspensions and penalties as well.

All the accused have denied wrongdoing.

Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, who owns AC Milan, railed against the prosecutors' proposed penalties.

"I am shocked and outraged at the requests," he said. "Milan never received refereeing favors. Actually, they were the victims of refereeing favors provided to other clubs."

The tribunal hopes to deliver its verdicts on Monday, and, after appeals, to have final verdicts by July 20.

Italy's soccer federation has until July 27 to declare who will represent the country in the European Champion's League and UEFA tournaments. Juventus, Milan and Fiorentina qualified for the Champions League and risk exclusion if the charges are proved.

Capello takes escape clause

Capello resigned Tuesday as coach of Juventus, leaving behind the match- fixing scandal that has embroiled Italy's top soccer clubs to return to Real Madrid, which he coached to the Spanish league title nine years ago, The Associated Press reported from Turin.

Capello's contract with the Italian club was to have expired in 2007, but he took advantage of an escape clause, a spokesman for the club said.

"His decision has nothing to do with the trial," a Juventus spokesman, Roberto Patriarca, said. "He would have been happy to stay on as coach even if Juve was demoted. But it appears a more tempting offer has come along."

Real Madrid's arriving president, Ramón Calderon, said Capello would be introduced as coach Thursday.

Capello, who was coach of Madrid when it won the Spanish league title in the 1996-97 season, would be the ailing powerhouse's sixth coach in the last three years.

http://www.nytimes.com/iht/2006/07/05/s ... andal.html

To see this develop will be interesting.

The vultures will be ready to pounce should they get demoted...

damn, i loved Juventus when i was a kid

Don't think they'll be alone in being demoted.

Should Juventus be demoted, there's another problem for them. If I'm correct, teams in the serie C are allowed only a very small amount of foreign players.

The old lady is about to get seriously raped.

2-0, and we weren't on drugs
2-0, and we weren't on drugs
2-0, and we weren't on drugs
2-0, and we weren't on drugs...

Until now I was pretty sure this would get covered up, but if it really looks like they're going to relegate them & AC Milan & Fiorentina & Lazio, then big thumbs up! Love it.

This is bigger than any kind of punishment ever dished out in American sports. They will lose ALL their big players, ALL their TV revenue, and they won't really have a chance to start rebuilding for two more years (assuming they win Serie C and Serie B in their first year in each division). Not to mention that if the other 3 teams get demoted to Serie B it will take a few years for all four to get back up to Serie A.

What an oppertunity for the rest of Serie A, though.

I would wait and see, if Italy win on Sunday then the whole thing will be softened, you can't win a world cup and then destroy Italian football. I would say maybe Juve into serie b and the other 3 starting the season with a 15 point fine or something.

If they lose on Sunday, who knows???

Curious. If these teams get relegated, do some teams currently in B or C get a free pass of promotion to A? I imagine that four teams out of A would mess up the fixture schedule, so they would need to replace them? How do they pick who to 'promote'?

The teams who finished 5th, 6th and so on in Serie B last season. There was a couple of teams that weren't allowed to be promotoed to Serie A just before the 2005/2006 campaign, then the teams finished just below promototion were given the nod.

I assume this will be the case if any teams are relegated by the courts as well.

so how does that work, do they have to sell thier players?

It seems like thier fan base will still be there and the money right?

It seems to the layperson like this will only make Serie A average.

Juventus? Fanbase? Hahaha. For most games of the season there's like 10.000 people in their stadium. Sad club.

Oh really, so this is pretty much the death penalty then I guess?

If you finish in the top part of each league don't you get promoted?

I have no idea,
there's some teams that got relegated that played their games for huge crowds, but Juve can't even do that in the top league (only the biggest games), even not in the Champions League (again, only the biggest games)

I just remember a few years ago they had some fairly high profile and I assume expensive players, I assumed maybe wrongly that it meant they had a large fanbase because to afford such expensive players they would need money.

AC Milan is kind of the ManU of that league right?

They have lots of money, they have lots of fans, they sell a lot of shirts, but I don't understand it. THeir stadium is almost never complete. They also have crazy presidents who just buy who they want to buy (something Chelski launched in England).

Some Media are reporting capellos intension to have Cannavaro, Zambrotta and emerson on real madrid.. as a loan.... juventus knows for sure that serie B is their next stop.. maybe france and sctoland could get some players ..