Post by Salem6 on Aug 21, 2006 14:42:43 GMT
Juventus have launched another appeal in an attempt to overturn their relegation to Serie B.
The club have lodged an appeal with a civil court, after their original complaint was rejected by the Italian Olympic Committee's arbitration court.
Fixture lists for the forthcoming season are set to be published on 30 August, with the start of the season already put back to 10 September.
Juve were relegated for their role in Italy's match-fixing scandal.
The club were originally docked 30 points, which has since been reduced to 17, and stripped of their last two titles.
A Regional Administrative Court in Lazio - with special powers to rule in sporting cases - will hear the case on 6 September, and the club also said they were considering the possibility of an appeal to Italian Olympic Committee's court of arbitration.
If Juve's appeal proves successful, there could be further delay to the start of the season which has already been held up by two weeks.
"Relegation will, above all, gravely damage the identity of Juventus," the club's statement said.
"In over a century of existence, Juve have contributed to writing the history of Italian football with a tradition of excellence which is alive as demonstrated by the nine Juventus players who took part in the recent World Cup final."
They finished the 2005/06 campaign as "champions" but were soon embroiled in one of the biggest scandals to hit Italian football.
Along with Lazio, Fiorentina and AC Milan, Juve were accused of attempting to exert influence over referees.
Lazio and Fiorentina were also initially relegated before being re-instated to Serie A with points deductions of 19 and 11 respectively and have, like Juve, been banned from European competition.
AC Milan start the new campaign in the top flight with an eight-point penalty, while Reggina have since been implicated and docked 15 points.
"The santions imposed on Juventus are disproportionate," added the statement.
"It's incomprehensible that Juventus should be treated with the most severity."
Their demotion to Serie B has led to a number of their top players leaving and their fourth-quarter revenues slumped by almost £15.7m to £27.5m.
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/5271112.stm