Tuesday 20 January 2009

Calciopoli trial adjourned on first day

The criminal trial probing the Calciopoli scandal that rocked Italian football in 2006 began in Naples today, but proceedings were immediately adjourned until March 24 because of legal arguments.

Luciano MoggiThe affair, which involved clubs trying to procure favourable referees to influence results in the 2004-05 season, led to Juventus being stripped of their 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles and being demoted to Serie B while five other clubs were deducted points.

Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, Lazio President Claudio Lotito, Reggina President Pasquale Foti and Fiorentina owners Diego and Andrea Della Valle are among 24 club directors, referees and former Italian football federation officials standing trial.


The others standing trial accused of criminal association and/or sporting fraud are Marcello Ambrosino, Paolo Bergamo, Paolo Bertini, Enrico Ceniccola, Antonio Dattilo, Massimo De Santis, Mariano Fabiani, Maria Grazia Fazi, Silvio Gemignani, Gennaro Mazzei, Innocenzo Mazzini, Leonardo Meani, Sandro Mencucci, Pierluigi Pairetto, Claudio Puglisi, Salvatore Racalbuto, Pasquale Rodomonti, Ignazio Scardina and Stefano Titomanlio.

A separate fast-track procedure has been reserved for 11 others - Duccio Baglioni, Stefano Cassara, Paolo Dondarini, Giuseppe Foschetti, Marco Gabriele, Antonio Giraudo, Alessandro Griselli, Tullio Lanese, Domenico Messina, Tiziano Pieri and Gianluca Rocchi - implicated in the affair.

The Calciopoli scandal came to a criminal court after Naples prosecutors decided to bring a case last year. The defendants deny the charges.

Some media reports said the trial could last over a year.

Italian Prime Minister and AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi is among the witnesses due to be called along with Italy coach Marcello Lippi and England boss Fabio Capello.

Moggi, who has no link to a Juve side now back in Serie A, was banned from football for five years by a sporting tribunal in 2006 and earlier this month was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence after a separate transfer market corruption trial in Rome.

As well as Juve's demotion, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, Reggina and Arezzo suffered points deductions for their involvement in the scandal.

The scandal revolved around transcripts of phone taps which appeared to show key figures in Italian football putting pressure on referees to favour certain clubs.

The allegations were uncovered as prosecutors investigated doping allegations at Juventus, Italy's most popular and successful club.

That separate inquiry resulted in club doctor Riccardo Agricola being found guilty of administering drugs to players in the mid-90s.

Source: Reuters

2 comments:

  1. Before writing something... please inform yourself of the topic and do not eliminate some interesting facts.
    read this please:

    http://forum.giulemanidallajuve.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1266&st=0

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  2. Funny how you forgot to mention that the civil court announced that there was no match fixing.
    Its funny how you also forgot to mention that the telecom Italia wire taps turned out to prove nothing. And for this reason, new accusations emerged that moggi used untraceable swiss sim cards.
    Funny how the second trial debunks the first.

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