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Saturday, September 2 |
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Juve formally withdraws TAR appeal
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Juventus on Friday formally withdrew an appeal to a civil court against its relegation for referee-rigging, saying it would instead present a final appeal within the realms of sporting justice .
The move removes risks that the start of the Serie A season would suffer a further postponement and not kick off as scheduled on September 9 .
Lawyers for the Turin team said the club appreciated the "willingness shown by the Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) and the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) to review its case during (CONI's) arbitration". The decision to drop the civil court appeal was made at a Juventus board meeting on Thursday, a day after club Chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli met CONI chief Gianni Petrucci and FIGC emergency supremo Guido Rossi in Rome in a last-ditch attempt to find a solution to the crisis, which threatened to spill outside Italy .
Juve's appeal to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR), which has jurisdiction over sporting disputes, had also risked involving FIFA, the worldwide soccer ruling body .
FIFA had threatened to ban the Azzurri and Italy's clubs from international competition if Juve went to the civil courts .
Taking the case to TAR would have broken FIFA and FIGC regulations about keeping soccer squabbles within the world of sport .
Cobolli Gigli reportedly agreed to accept Juve's demotion to Serie B and ditch the TAR appeal in exchange for assurances that the club will get a substantial reduction on its 17-point penalty with the CONI arbitration panel .
"We have faith that Juventus's request for fairer treatment in the penalties handed out will be well received by the arbitration panel," the lawyers said in a formal letter to TAR explaining the reason for the withdrawal of their appeal .
TAR was to have begun hearing the case on Friday .
Juventus, which was also stripped of the 2005 and 2006 titles, has repeatedly complained that its punishment was unfairly harsh since it was the only one of the five clubs found guilty of involvement in the scandal to be relegated .
The FIGC says it was hit hardest because Luciano Moggi, the club's former general manager, was the main villain in moves to arrange 'friendly' refs for some teams' games .
The Federation allowed the four other clubs, Fiorentina, Reggina, Lazio and AC Milan, to stay in the top flight giving them penalties of 19, 15, 11 and eight points respectively .
The Turin outfit had been demanding that the FIGC reinstate it into Serie A .
But it is expected to settle for a 10-12-point reduction on the penalty, which means it will start the season in the second division with a handicap of 5-7 points .
This will give the club a good chance of winning promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt and returning to the European Champions League in two season's time .
With a 17-point handicap, the club would have been likely to spend the next two seasons in the second division. This would have meant exclusion from the money-spinning Champions League for at least three .
FIGC rules state that taking disputes outside sporting tribunals is punishable with a three-point penalty. This meant Juventus risked starting the season in Serie B at -20 by going to the TAR .
Meanwhile, consumers' associations Codacons and Federconsumatori said they would continue their civil court case against Juventus, saying that soccer had suffered a moral blow and loss of image with the match-fixing scandal. photo: Juve keeper Gianluigi Buffon |
posted by ^%&^
@ 8:29 PM
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