Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Calciopoli Italian match-scandal case expires after nine-year investigation

The nine-year investigation into the Italian football's infamous Calcioipoli match-scandal of 2006 has been concluded with no sentences ultimately decreed.

Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudi, who were the two main individuals in the investigation accused of having manipulated the refereeing appointments of Serie A games to favour Juventus, both saw charges against them dropped by the high court on Monday.

The two former Juventus general managers had been banned from any involvement in football by the sporting courts when recordings of telephone conversations using Swiss SIM cards with the then referees' chief Pierluigi Pairetto, as well as some referees, were used to implicate the pair.

The scandal -- known in Italy as Calciopoli -- saw Juventus relegated to Serie B and two of their titles revoked while AC Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina and Reggina were also punished in the form of points being deducted.

Almost a decade on, though, all charges apart from a one-year suspended sentence to former referee Massimo De Santis have been wiped out.

"It's a process that has been carried forward in an abnormal way -- it's been a joke for nine years and this isn't a pleasant thing -- which has ended in nothing," said Moggi after the case was closed, reports La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"In nine years, it has been established that the league was in fact regular, the drawing [of referees] was regular and that the communication [via telephone] did not exist."

Moggi's claims are inaccurate, however, with the high court not absolving him but rather archiving the case as "expired" on Monday. The original accusations were confirmed by the presiding magistrate Aldo Fiale.

However, the affair appears to be far from over. Juventus are demanding compensation of €443 million from the Italian FA for damages they believe were caused by their relegation to Serie B, while they may also fight for the two league titles revoked to be reinstated.

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