ROME, July 4 (Reuters) - Champions Juventus should be relegated to the third division and three other top clubs thrown out of Italian soccer's top league, the prosecutor in a sports match-fixing trial said on Tuesday.  

Stefano Palazzi told the tribunal that AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina should be despatched to Italy's second division, Serie B, and Juve also stripped of the Serie A titles they won in the last two seasons. 

The prosecutor's demands are more severe than expected and came just hours before Italy were due to play World Cup hosts Germany in the semi-final in Dortmund at 9.00 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Juve are at the centre of Italy's biggest sporting trial after phone taps revealed one of its top managers discussing referee appointments with officials. Palazzi said Juventus should be relegated to 'below Serie B'.

The prospect of Italy's most successful team plummeting into the also-rans of soccer sent a shiver through investors and the Milan stock exchange suspended Juve's shares.

In another blow, Juventus said coach Fabio Capello had resigned. Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon said on Monday he would appoint Capello, one of Italian soccer's most successful managers, as coach to the 
Spanish giants.

Juve stock was indicated down almost 14 percent soon after the trial news broke. Shares were indicated down 3.72 percent at 1.29 euros at 1200 GMT.

Eight of the players likely to be in Italy's opening 11 against Germany are from teams standing trial. Juventus has five players in the Italy squad and three playing for France.

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire who owns AC Milan, said he was 'indignant' at the prosecutor's request to relegate his club and said Milan should be handed Juve's last two titles if the Turin team were found guilty.

'Milan have never had refereeing favours, on the contrary, they've been victims of refereeing favours in favour of other clubs,' he said.

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

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.

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 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 lawyer representing former Italian Football Federation (FIGC) official Paolo Bergamo announced that his client had surrendered his membership of the FIGC and was not therefore liable to be tried by the sports tribunal.

Bergamo used to conduct the draw that assigned referees to Serie A matches.

Lawyer Gaetano Scalise criticised the tribunal's decision to allow intercepted telephone calls to be used as evidence and attacked the 'media circus' around the trial.

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

lelong sales coming EPL's way.

Juventus relegated to Serie B liao and out of CL.

why is ac milan so special??? won't get relegated....this is sooo unfair to the rest of 3 teams.....

quote:

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Originally posted by Ting Fu:
why is ac milan so special??? won't get relegated....this is sooo unfair to the rest of 3 teams.....

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.

wtf.....I read todayonline tat Camoranesi is link to liverpool........I rather have pennant....still young.....

and many of the players are link mostly to real madrid....they plan to field 22 players like tat.....lol

NO!!! camoranesi is the most useless player in italian squad. why would benitez be keen in a player who plays exactly like cisse.

as for real madrid, the below comment from F365 really makes me laugh:

DIARRA BACK ON THE AGENDA
Mahamadou Diarra has opened the possibility of a move to ManYoo by announcing "At the moment I'm open to all offers."

The 25-year-old has also been linked with Arsenal, although The Times reports that 'Real Madrid have expressed an interest' in the Lyons midfielder. Jeez, from the sounds of things, Real Madrid are currently interested in any footballer with two legs.

Camonranesi does not have the skill, creativity and guile like the rest , but benitez knows that he's a reliable work horse in midfield...

Juventus at the moment will find it hard to climb out of serie b if they lose the whole team of star players.... how can a team possibly change all 11 key players and expect to win ...
they may take a year for their new players to gel , struggle in serie B for at least 2 seasons and then gain promotion back to serie A.

year 1 - in serie B with entirely new team, minus 30 points - mid table
year 2 - in serie B fighting for promotion place - promotion (top 3)
year 3 - promoted to serie A but without star players will finish high top table,
year 4 - finish top 3 (given their $$ and history)
year 5 - champions league

so my optimistic prediction for them to get back into Champions league is at least 4-5 years time.


at the moment, it looks like all the other clubs seem like vultures are hovering above juventus's head, waiting to take a bite off them..
real madrid's fortune will change with appointment of capello i believe.. he's a coach with such a track record .. now he's going to bring at least 3-4 players from juve to strengthen milan.

Where will Juve's player end up?
Mostl likely AC, Inter and Real Madrid
Barca - unlikely to need anyone
Chelsea  - loads of $$ as always .. team keeps getting stronger
Man United seem unable to attract any top players to come .. .. why ah ? now fans are anticipating the return of scholes and soljskear.
Arsenal - manager belives only in youngsters
Tottenham - very ambitious at the moment
Liverpool - manager will buy someone who believes will suit his style of play

oh no! looks like real madrid got cannavaro.

and barca got zambrotta and thuram..

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Originally posted by Kent:
and barca got zambrotta and thuram..

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the strong keeps getting stronger....