Severe punishment for Serie A four

Relegation for Juve, Lazio and Fiorentina

Mutiny at the Villa

—– Less than a week after Italy lifted the World Cup, severe punishments are imposed on four of Serie A’s top clubs after a sports tribunal’s investigation in to the match-fixing scandal.
Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina are all demoted to Serie B (the Italian league’s second division).
Juve are also stripped of their last two Serie A titles and will have 30 points deducted in the coming season. That means the Turin giants are almost certain to stay down for at least two seasons.
Lazio also suffer a 7-point deduction while Fiorentina are handed a 12-point loss
Although AC Milan retain their Serie A status, they will start the 2006-07 season with a 15-point deduction.
All four are also barred from European competition in the coming season.
Juve’s immediate reaction included: “We expected a balanced sentence not only in form but in substance; our expectations were different ones.”
Fiorentina feel their punishment is “profoundly unjust” while Milan claim “extraordinary injustice”.
Lazio president Claudio Lotito, who is banned for three years, fumes: “I think this sentence is provisional as it’s based on a theorem which is completely ridiculous”.

The summary of the punishments is:
Juventus:
Relegated to Serie B
30-point deduction for next season
Stripped of 2005 and 2006 titles
Out of 2006-07 Champions League
Five-year ban for ex-general manager Luciano Moggi
Five-year ban for ex-chief executive Antonio Giraudo
AC Milan:
Deducted 15 points next season
Out of 2006-07 Champions League
One-year ban for vice-president Adriano Galliani
Club official Leonardo Meani banned for three years and six months
Fiorentina:
Relegated to Serie B
12-point deduction next season
Out of 2006-07 Champions League
President Andrea Della Valle banned for three years and six months
Four-year ban for honorary president Diego Della Valle
Lazio:
Relegated to Serie B
Out of 2006-07 Uefa Cup
7-point deduction next season
Three-year ban for president Claudio Lotito

They have all vowed to appeal to the Federal Court, and it must be submitted in the next three days.
There is little chance of lifting the ban on European places as the UEFA deadline is 25 July - only 11 days away.

—– A statement allegedly issued by the entire first team squad at Aston Villa launches a tirade of criticism in the direction of chairman Doug Ellis.
The anonymous statement, that is published in the Express & Star, reads: “The chairman should be behind the club and not working against what we’re trying to achieve.
“There’ve been a series of cutbacks and we feel we have to mention this because they are now starting to affect us.
“People talk about Aston Villa being a big club and winning the European Cup in 1982.
“We feel it should be a big club but if the chairman has got ambition, he needs to start showing it. It has to come from the top.
“So many other clubs are doing so much to show their ambition apart from us. As players we’re all ambitious and we want to improve on last season.
“At the end of last season, the chairman refused to pay £300 for the pitches to be watered. The training ground development, which we were all looking forward to working in, has stopped.
“Now we have lost a masseur because the club refuse to pay for one and are clubbing together to pay for our own.
“We have also heard that the physio, who was on his way to see Martin Laursen, could not claim back for a cup of coffee at the airport.
“We’ve had no explanation for the cutbacks and we feel if the manager (David O’Leary) can’t get one, then we have no chance.
“Maybe the chairman thought he would have left by now because of the takeover. Supporters are concerned with what happens on the pitch and rightly so.
“But we feel with all the cutbacks, it is difficult to attain the targets we all share.
“There are no positives coming out of the club. We need to see a plan where the club is going and all the players feel the same. Every penny is being watched.”