Juventus has claimed the Serie A title for the 29th time but a massive match-fixing scandal means it is uncertain how long they will hold it for. The Italian giants risk being dumped from Serie A and the European Champions League and stripped of the 2005 and 2006 crowns because of the revelations of a series of criminal probes.
The biggest of these is in Naples, where prosecutors are examining allegations that former Juventus General Manager Luciano Moggi rigged referee selection so the club would get 'friendly' officials.
The nation has been in a state of shock over the last two weeks as increasingly damaging wiretap evidence collected by investigators has emerged in the press.
The wiretaps were recorded during the 2004-2005 season, although Naples daily Il Mattino reported Monday that prosecutors there are investigating at least one suspect game from the championship that has just ended too. Moggi resigned on Sunday in order to defend himself from
the allegations that he said had "killed my soul".
On Monday Neapolitan prosecutors interrogated him in Rome about the match-fixing allegations and suspicions he illegally "detained" a referee last season for failing to favour Juventus.
Outgoing Premier and AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi has called for his club, which finished second this year and in 2005, to be given the last two scudettos.
"We demand they give us back the two league titles that are due to us," Berlusconi said before Milan's 2-1 win over AS Roma. "We're tired of suffering injustices."
However, Milan are also among the four clubs in the spotlight of the probe into favours allocated by "the Moggi system". The other two are Lazio and Fiorentina. If the involvement of Milan were established, it is possible that Inter Milan, which finished third, will be awarded the 2006 title.
On Monday trading in Juventus shares on the Milan stock exchange was suspended after the price plunged by over 20%. The scandal has been dubbed 'clean-feet', a reference to the 'clean-hands' corruption scandal of the early 1990s, which swept away much of the political establishment of the day.
It has already led to the resignations of Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) Chief Franco Carraro, who is also one of the 41 people under judicial investigation in Naples, Vice President Innocenzo Mazzini, and Referees' Association (AIA) President Tullio Lanese.
The whole Juventus board quit Thursday.
The scandal has caused FIGC to pull Massimo De Santis, one of nine referees under investigation, from the World Cup this summer as well.
The 41 individuals are suspected of crimes ranging from fraud, including sporting fraud, embezzlement and being a part of a criminal association.
Fiorentina owner and footwear tycoon Diego della Valle and Lazio chairman Claudio Lotito are among them. Their clubs, which finished fourth and sixth, risk losing their respective places in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and being relegated to Serie B with Juventus.
Moggi is also being probed by Rome prosecutors investigating GEA World, the footballers' agency run by his son Alessandro.
Juventus CEO Antonio Giraudo is being probed in Turin for alleged false accounting. Juventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is one of
four players under investigation in Parma on suspicion of illegal betting.
According to Italian legal procedures, prosecutors must formally notify suspects they are being investigated but it does not necessarily mean they will then be indicted. Despite the damage 'clean-feet' has done to Italian soccer's credibility, the fans still turned out en masse for the championship's final weekend of fixtures.
Juventus' travelling support stayed behind their club, Moggi included. One banner read: "The ends justify the means, thank you."
Rival fans were less sympathetic, but they did not lose their sense of humour.
"Ali Baba and the 40 Moggis," quipped a banner at the Sampdoria-Lecce game.
A student in Palermo had a new mission in mind for the former Juve executive: "Moggi call my teachers to get them to change my report card," his banner read.
