In a surprising move the tribunal of judges that are part of the Italian football federation (FIGC) who are overseeing the latest match fixing scandal to hit Italy, today denied Juventus coach Antonio Conte’s request for a three-month ban in an attempt. Conte has been accused of failing to report match-fixing while he was coach of Siena.
Conte had initially denied the allegations before trying to reach a deal with the Italian authorities. I previously reported that Conte had agreed to a plea bargain of three months and a €200,000 fine set to go to charity.
Conte’s proposal was that he merely be given a slap on the wrist. Under his proposal he would not be allowed on the touchline for Juventus’s first ten games, but he could still conduct practices and run the team on a day to day basis like he normally us.
Obviously the tribunal did not think that the punishment was sufficient.
So now Conte and his attorneys have to come up with a new plea bargain that the FIGC will accept or face a sports tribunal which could hand down a penalty of up to a year if he is found guilty.
As you would expect the Juventus lawyers are furious at the decision and are now trying to have the whole trial scrapped. They have requested that the judges be recused from the case, because by rejecting the plea bargain
“You have already made your decisions and you therefore cannot judge in a trial what you have already judged. The Corte Costituzionale in 1992 ruled a judge cannot rule after he rejected an agreed plea bargain.”
Don’t think that there is much chance of the Juve attorneys winning that argument, but the threat of losing their manager for maybe the whole season has to have the defending champions worried.