Juventus hit rock bottom as Italy's cheats are relegated

[T_i_B]

As this is the big issue that people I know are discussing I thought it best to post this here.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/continentalfootball/story/0,,1821167,00.html

Juventus were last night dealt the most crushing blow in the club's illustrious history when a sporting tribunal set up by the Italian federation to decide on claims of match-fixing ordered the club be relegated to Serie B and forced to start next season with a 30-point deduction. It is unlikely they will play in the Champions League before at least 2009.

Milan, who were expected to emerge relatively unscathed from the biggest scandal to hit Italian football in modern times, were instead left facing at least two years out of European competition. Silvio Berlusconi's side avoided enforced relegation but were stripped of 44 points from last season, dropping them out of the European qualification spots, and given a 15-point handicap for next.

Lazio and Fiorentina were sent down to Serie B, where they will enter the championship with minus-seven and minus-12 points respectively. Luciano Moggi, the Juventus general manager at the centre of the affair, was banned from football for five years and the former president of the Italian federation, Franco Carraro, was excluded for 4½ years for failing to stop this rot at the very heart of the game.

The verdicts seem likely to release a stream of talent from Italy as players from the relegated clubs choose to go elsewhere - some quite possibly to the moneyed English Premiership - rather than showcase their skills at second division grounds. Juve alone supplied five of Italy's World Cup-winning squad.