Prosecutor: Moggi should get five years if guilty
Reuters - Tuesday 31 May 2011, 21:30
ROME - Former Juventus general manager
Luciano Moggi should face five years and eight months in jail
for his involvement in the 2006 Italian match-fixing scandal if
he is found guilty, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The criminal trial into the affair has dragged on for years
and the prosecutors' request would have to be agreed to by
judges.
Juve were demoted to the second tier in 2006 and had their
2005 and 2006 Serie A titles stripped after being punished in
the sporting courts for trying to gain favourable referees for
their matches.
Other Italian clubs were implicated, suffering points
deductions, and now their officials have also had requests for
prison sentences forwarded to the judges.
Prosecutors have asked for a two-year sentence for
Fiorentina owner Diego Della Valle and 10 months for Lazio
president Claudio Lotito.
Given Italy's complicated legal system, in reality none of
the accused are likely to go to jail if found guilty and the
sentences are agreed.
Moggi has already been convicted of trying to manipulate the
transfer market via a management agency in a separate criminal
trial but has never served his one-year term.
He was also suspended from football for five years in 2006
by the sporting courts and the Italian football federation meets
next month to decide whether to ban him for life.
The federation is also mulling new evidence which came out
in the criminal trial to see if Inter Milan, previously not
caught up in the scandal, were actually involved and therefore
did not deserve to inherit Juve's 2006 title.
Inter deny any wrongdoing.
Twice European champions Juve have never fully recovered
from the demotion despite being back in Serie A for four
seasons.
They finished seventh for a second straight campaign last
term and on Tuesday appointed former midfielder Antonio Conte as
coach to try to bring back the glory years.