An Italian Football Federation (FIGC) trial against four leading Serie A clubs, a slew of club officials and referees for alleged match fixing opened here on Thursday but was almost immediately postponed until next Monday.
The trial was adjourned after judges agreed to allow five other clubs to take part in the proceedings as co-plaintiffs.
First division champions Juventus of Turin, Lazio Rome and Fiorentina risk being relegated if the are found guilty of involvement in an alleged match-fixing ring. Juve could also be stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles.
AC Milan faces less serious charges and if found guilty of wrongdoing could start the next season with a negative handicap and lose its berth in the European Champions League. Juventus is in hottest water because its former general manager, Luciano Moggi, is the alleged ringleader of a network set up to steer matches in some clubs' favour.
Moggi heads the list of 26 referees, officials and club managers accused of misconduct, 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.
Individuals found guilty will face the prospect of being banned from the game.
These include Fiorentina owner Andrea Della Valle, owner of footwear giant Tod's, his brother Diego, the club chairman, and Lazio Chairman Claudio Lotito. Three Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) officials, including former president Franco Carraro, the ex-head of the referees association, two former referee appointers, eight referees and two linesmen have been charged too.
The clubs and individuals are accused of violations of fairness and probity and sporting fraud, according to articles 1 and 6 of FIGC's regulations. The five clubs which claim they had been damaged by the match-influencing system are Lecce, Messina, Treviso, Bologna and Brescia.
The FIGC tribunal is expected to issue its rulings by July 9. Appeals would then be heard before July 20, so the whole sporting disciplinary process can be wrapped up before UEFA conducts 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.
On Wednesday prosecutors spoke to Juventus coach Fabio Capello as part of their investigation into the activities of GEA World, a players' agency run by Moggi's son Alessandro. GEA is suspected of being one of the 'tools' through which Moggi controlled the Italian soccer world. Capello is not under investigation.
The so-called Moggi-gate 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.
