Four top Serie A clubs including champions Juventus face relegation while referees, officials and club managers are looking at bans for match-fixing in Italy's biggest-ever sports scandal.
Italian Football League (Lega Calcio) President Adriano Galliani, vice-president of AC Milan, resigned on Thursday night after he was named in Italian Football Federation (FIGC) prosecutor Stefano Palazzi's charge sheet.
Galliani said his resignation "should not be interpreted as an admission of guilt" while AC Milan's chairman, former premier Silvio Berlusconi, reiterated his conviction that Milan would escape punishment. As well as Juventus and Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina face possible relegation if found guilty by an FIGC tribunal which will convene next week.
Juventus's former general manager Luciano Moggi, the alleged ringleader of what FIGC investigator Francesco Saverio Borrelli called "a network" set up to influence referees, heads the list of the 26 accused along with Juve's ex-CEO Antonio Giraudo.
In return for favours on the pitch, Moggi and Giraudo stand accused of wining and dining refs and giving them half-price deals for cars made by Fiat, the Turin auto maker controlled by Juve's owner the Agnelli Group. Palazzi's charge sheet also includes Fiorentina owner Andrea Della Valle, owner of footwear giant Tod's, his brother Diego, the club chairman, and Lazio Chairman Claudio Lotito.
Also charged were three ex-FIGC officials including former president Franco Carraro, the former head of the referees association, two former referee appointers, eight referees and two linesmen. The clubs and individuals will be charged with violations of fairness and probity and sporting fraud, according to articles 1 and 6 of FIGC's sporting regulations.
Teams convinced of sporting fraud can be relegated, canbe stripped of their title, have points deducted next season and face fines. Individuals found guilty of misconduct face the prospect of being banned from the game.
The announcement of the four clubs involved came an hour after Italy's national team reached the second round of the World Cup by beating the Czech Republic 2-0 and after the Italian bourse closed for the day.
FIGC administrator Guido Rossi postponed the news to avoid hitting the morale of the team, which had eight players from the clubs on the field against the Czechs - and five more on the bench.
Rossi also timed the announcement in accordance with the wishes of bourse oversight body Consob, which has foreseen
large movements in the stock of the two listed clubs involved, Juventus and Lazio. Juventus, which clinched its 29th Italian title last month, is expected to face the stiffest charges in the FIGC trial, due to start on June 28 and end July 9.
In the worst-case scenario, the Turin giants could be relegated to the third division and lose their two most recent Italian titles, while the other three clubs could be relegated to the second division.
All four clubs would therefore be eliminated from European competition next year.
If the FIGC tribunal is lenient, Juventus may be relegated to Serie B with a heavy points deduction and the other clubs could escape with fines and points deductions at the start of the Serie A season. Milan was initially thought to be in a less serious
position but its referee liaison officer is now alleged to have obtained friendly linesmen for a match with Galliani's knowledge and approval.
Galliani's lawyer stressed that his client was not accused of direct responsibility in the case - unlike the other suspects.
The best-known referee in the scandal is Massimo De Santis, who is alleged to have helped Moggi influence refs.
De Santis was one of two Italian refs chosen for the World Cup but he was forced to pull out after the scandal spread thanks to police wiretaps leaked to the Italian press. One referee, Gianluca Paparesta, is up before the tribunal because he failed to report a post-match incident in which Moggi allegedly left him locked him up in a changing room.
Rossi said the delay in announcing the indictments would not affect the schedule for the sporting side of what has been called 'Soccergate' or, after its leading suspect, 'Moggigate'.
After the tribunal issue its sentences, appeals should be heard before July 20 - so the whole sporting disciplinary process can be wrapped up before UEFA makes the draws for next season's European club competitions. Four separate criminal probes into the scandal are expected to take much longer.
State prosecutors are looking at different elements of the alleged web of corruption, which also extends to illegal betting, false accounting, doping and transfer fraud. The scandal is the biggest to hit the sport since a 1980 betting case in which Paolo Rossi - later Italy's 1982 World Cup hero - was among the players banned.
