Guilty! Serie B awaits...for the time being

Aiuto! Comprili, o almeno ottengali sul prestito. Non desideriamo giocare in Serie B! ( Actually that mock plea should also be in other languages!)

Yesterday, less than a week after the Italian national team won the World Cup, an Italian tribunal have reached the verdict that four of the top Italian clubs – Juventus, Fiorentina, AC Milan and Lazio are guilty of match-fixing. AC Milan stays in Serie A next season but will start the 2006/2007 season with -15 points. The other three clubs were given a harsher punishment – relegation to Serie B.

The clubs involved will file their appeal but for the time being, the sentence holds. Reactions in Italy are mixed. Some agree that the parties involved should be heavily penalized, others disagree as the star players will move abroad. Still, many agree that eventually the fans will suffer.

Anyway, should the verdict is upheld and the sentences are not commuted, expect a massive transfer before the start of the season. These players would definitely be hot items…Sale! Sale! (might not cheap though!)

Gianluigi Buffon
Lilian Thuram
Fabio Cannavaro
Patrick Vieira
Gianluca Zambrotta
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Alessandro Del Piero
David Trezeguet
Angelo Peruzzi
Simone Inzaghi
Luca Toni
Hidetoshi Nakata

Should they want to move away, Man U, don’t want to chip in ka?

This scandal also reminds me of the bribery scandal in the Malaysian league several years ago. Big-name players were involved and subsequently disgraced. And I believe that the shock can still be felt to this day.