Calciopoli: Lazio and Fiorentina reprieved, Milan in the Champions League
The appeal court announced its verdict on the calciopoli scandal earlier this evening. The big winners are Lazio and Fiorentina with both teams escaping relegation to Serie B and instead remaining in Serie A but starting the season with -11 and -19 points respectively. Milan must also be pleased. They will start with -8 instead of -15 points and crucially will be able to take part in the Champions League, although they will start from the qualifying rounds. For Juve too there was a slight reduction in penalty. They will start on -17 as opposed to -30 but remain in Serie B. They now have an outside chance of promotion.
The losers included Lecce and Treviso who will now play in Serie B - after the original verdict they had been reinstated to Serie A. Palermo also suffered with their Champions League hopes being dashed.
So it seems like the summer sales will continue at Juve. Milan will probably now be able to keep their star players like Kaka and Fiorentina will need another stupendous season from Luca Toni (if he stays) to survive. The court has been soft and the decision seems like a cop out to me unless there were darker forces involved. Berlusconi? Or perhaps Luciano Moggi himself…
