Post by Salem6 on Aug 30, 2006 9:16:03 GMT
ROME, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) threatened Wednesday to hit Juventus even harder if the club goes through with plans to appeal against its relegation in the civil courts.
Last month, the FIGC demoted Juve to Serie B, stripped it of the 2005 and 2006 titles and ruled it must start next season with a 17-point handicap for its part in a match-fixing scandal.
On Monday, Juventus' board of directors said the club will appeal to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR), which has jurisdiction over soccer disputes, because it claims this punishment is unfairly harsh.
Juventus was the only one of the five clubs found guilty of involvement in the scandal to be relegated.
But clubs are expressly forbidden from taking disputes outside the realm of sporting justice by FIGC's statute, hence Wednesday's warning.
FIGC's threat was contained in a letter the federation sent to international soccer's governing body, FIFA.
In the letter, FIGC said it would not "hesitate to punish" Juventus if it appealed to the TAR.
But it also stressed that Juventus had not yet officially presented this appeal.
FIFA directives also forbid clubs from taking cases to civil courts and the governing body pressed the FIGC to adopt a hard line with Juventus in a separate letter sent Tuesday.
The Italian sports press have suggested FIFA may take action against the FIGC, possibility going as far as excluding Italy from international competitions, if it is not strict enough with Juve.
But Wednesday's letter seemed to satisfy FIFA, which issued a statement saying that it has no plans to open disciplinary proceedings against Italy.
FIFA added that it was monitoring the situation and reserved the right to change its position if it deemed this necessary.
Experts say it is possible that FIFA will directly discipline Juventus if the club takes the matter to the civil courts.
On Wednesday, Gianni Petrucci, head of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) - the body that regulates all sport in Italy - said that "soccer disputes should stay within the world of sport".
Pundits fear Juventus' appeal to the Lazio TAR could - among other things - further delay the start of the upcoming Serie A season.
The championship kick-off has already been postponed once, from August 27 to September 9, to allow the clubs time to appeal to CONI.
But Petrucci insisted that a postponement is "not an issue".
On Tuesday, the Lazio TAR rejected appeals by two former Juventus directors at the center of the scandal, Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo, against five-year bans on working in football imposed on them by FIGC.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/24/content_5000048.htm