It what should be the end of the Calciopoli scandal, former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi was sentenced to five years and four months in jail today for his role in the match-fixing case which led to Juventus being relegated and stripped of their 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles.
Moggi was found guilty of sporting fraud and conspiracy by an Italian court in the criminal trial linked to the affair. Fiorentina owners and brothers Andrea and Diego Della Valle and Lazio president Claudio Lotito were each sentenced to 15 months in prison and fined 25,000 euros each.
Former referee selector Paolo Bergamo was sentenced to three years and eight months and his colleague Pierluigi Pairetto to one year and 11 months.
However none of the guilty defendants are likely to actually spend any time in jail due to Italy’s lengthy appeals process and the reluctance of judges to send non-violent criminals to jail.
This was the second jail suspension for Moggi, who was previously convicted of trying to manipulate the transfer market via a management agency in a separate criminal trial. Then he was given a one-year prison sentence, but has yet to serve a day in jail on that charge.
As a result of the scandal, Juventus were demoted to the second division and were stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles.
AC Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina and Reggina were also involved in the scandal, known as Calciopoli, and were penalised with points deductions.