JUVENTUS, the champions of Italy and the most successful club in the nation’s history, were reeling last night after being sentenced to play in Serie B and docked 30 points in the wake of the match-fixing scandal.

Juventus face at least two seasons in the second level of the Italian game and, thanks to the hefty points penalty, may struggle not to be relegated again next year. “This is unprecedented. We expected a more balanced sentence,” Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, the club’s new president, said. “Juventus is the only team that has shown clear signs of wanting to change.”

Gigli addressed the concerns of the fans of the “Old Lady”, Juve’s nickname, that global superstars such as Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro and Pavel Nedved would now leave Turin, indicating that the club would not sell off their big names cheaply.

“I have some hopes that some of our most important players will remain,” Gigli said. “It’s obvious that part of our squad will not remain in Serie B. We can’t deny them the chance to play in a more competitive league.

“We will not just sell off our players. Lots will leave but they will do so for fair prices. [Fabio] Capello [the former coach], who left us right before the sentence [to join Real Madrid], if he wants our players, he will have to pay the right price for them. I am not angry. The correct term, as a fan and as someone from Juventus, is pissed off.”

Lazio and Fiorentina were also sent down, but with smaller points deductions, and so may return within a year to the top flight. AC Milan, the northern powerhouses owned by Silvio Berlusconi, were left in Serie A but will see no Champions League action this year and are unlikely to qualify next season.

All four clubs expressed dismay over the rulings and said that they would appeal. Fiorentina said their sentence was “deeply unjust”, while Lazio claimed that the judges had been “too severe” and Milan branded the ruling an “extraordinary injustice”.

Pushed by their Agnelli family owners, Juventus have completely changed their management team and directors. The Turin club’s lawyers had told the tribunal that they would be willing to accept relegation to Serie B if they were not penalised in other ways.

Luciano Moggi, the former Juventus general manager charged with being the linchpin of a powerful network likened to a Mafia cupola [high command], who was banned from taking any job in the sport for five years, reportedly told people close to him: “I’m not sorry for myself but for the teams involved and their fans.”

Before the rulings were announced last night, he had said: “I’m not guilty of anything. My name was put there just because it made waves. Moggi and the cupola! It just makes me laugh.”

Claudio Lotito, the Lazio chairman, was banned for 3½ years, a ruling that the Rome club’s fans evidently thought was deserved. A group immediately started singing: “From today we’re hunting Lotito.”

The Lazio chairman was unrepentant and suggested that the decision would be overturned. “I think this sentence is provisional as it’s based on a theory that is completely ridiculous,” Lotito said. “I will not make any decisions until a final sentence is given.”

Diego Della Valle, the Fiorentina owner, and his brother, Andrea Della Valle, the chairman, also received bans. Adriano Galliani, the Milan No 2, was banned for one year.

Supporters of all three relegated teams took to the streets in anger but many vented their rage against Juventus, who are considered by many to be the real guilty party. “This is an unjust trial in the sense that Juve are the only guilty ones but — as usual — the rest of us are being made to pay for it,” Andrea Hotfield, a Lazio fan, said. “In this country football is founded on the fans’ attachment to the shirt and the clubs, the federation and the officials all take advantage of that.”

Clubs and individuals have five days to appeal. The football federation’s court could begin hearing those appeals on Thursday and produce sentences within a few days.

The timing could be important because Uefa, European football’s governing body, has said that it needs to know which Italian clubs have qualified for European tournaments by July 25. It has also said, however, that if the appeal decisions are not through by that date, it will take yesterday’s rulings as valid.

The ruling by the sports tribunal has no value under Italian criminal law.

SPENT FORCES

• Juventus will suffer a 50 per cent drop in annual revenue from about £151 million to £75 million
  
• TV rights for Serie B were £14 million last season. The deal is negotiated collectively, rather than individually as in Serie A, a potential bonus for smaller clubs. Juve’s deal was for £66 million last season
  
  
• The Juventus share price has more than halved since the scandal broke, while Lazio and Fiorentina have experienced a similar drop
  
• AC Milan will lose up to £19 million from TV rights and in bonuses from being denied a place in the Champions League
  
  
• Juventus are likely to be out of the Champions League for at least three years, losing about £30 million in television income
  
  GARY JACOB
  
  

Explore Football

• Premier League

• Football League

• Scotland

• European Football

• International Football

• TheGame

• Live Match Tracker

• The Fink Tank

• Fantasy Football