By Alberto Cagliano Sep 1, 2006, 14:20 GMT
Milan, Italy - A Rome court room was no longer needed on Friday and Italy's top two football leagues can start without further delays after Juventus Turin decided to withdraw a civil court appeal against its relegation over a match-fixing scheme.
The move also puts an end to possible sanctions against the club from the football federation FIGC and Italian football in general by the world governing body FIFA.
The Serie A and B leagues are now set to start on September 9 and 10, two weeks later than originally planned due to the affair.
Beleaguered Juventus late Thursday accepted relegation to the second division by withdrawing the appeal, saying they will seek milder sanctions overall from sports judges.
'After a careful examination, the board of directors has decided unanimously to withdraw the appeal at the administrative court of Lazio and immediately contact the arbitration chamber of CONI (the Italian Olympic committee),' the Turin club said.
A FIGC appeals court in July stripped Juventus of the Serie A titles won in the past two seasons and relegated the club to Serie B with a 17-point penalty for their involvement in a wide match-fixing affair. The original sanction by FIGC was a 30-points deduction.
Juve appealed before the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), saying it was not treated in the same way as the other implicated clubs AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina - the latter two allowed by the FIGC appeals court to stay in Serie A after an original FIGC demotion.
But CONI did not reduce the sanctions which prompted Juve to go before the civil court even though FIGC and FIFA rules call for sanctions if clubs go beyond sports authorities in legal issues.
A hearing was set for Friday, but Juve eventually withdraw and now hope to obtain from CONI a reduction of the point penalty, the cancellation of a three-game home pitch ban and of the 120,000-euro fine imposed by FIGC.
The affair centred on former Juve officials Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo who were found guilty by FIGC of influencing the choice of referees. Both have been banned from football activities.
The demotion saw Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Lilian Thuram, Emerson, Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic depart.
But Juve also managed to keep Gianluigi Buffon, Pavel Nedved, Mauro Camoranesi, David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero. However, it remains doubtful whether all of them will stay if Juve aren't promoted into Serie A again in 2007, which makes their call for less points deducted even more necessary.
A small group of fans protested outside the club headquarters during the board meeting Thursday night, asking that the club proceed with the civil court appeal.
'I realise that some of them will not understand,' said club president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli. 'But they do not represent our 12 million fans. We are convinced we have taken a good decision for Juventus.'
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