ITALIAN CRISIS DRAGS ON

As the most important tribunal in Italy's football history opened on Thursday, the executive manager of Juventus, one of the clubs at the centre of the case, was clinging to life after a suspected suicide attempt.

On Tuesday, Gianluca Pessotto fell 15 metres (50 feet) from the club's headquarters in Turin clutching rosary beads. Doctors treating him said yesterday they were not yet confident he would survive.

Mr Pessotto, formerly a player at the club, was appointed to act as a bridge between management and players because of the scandal that prompted yesterday's tribunal, but his involvement - if any - in the events is unclear.

The former Juventus footballer, who is known to many of the players in the World Cup, has been connected to a ventilator and put into a drug-induced coma.

In Rome club officials and owners, federation supremos, referees, linesmen and their lawyers were called to the tribunal in a low-ceilinged room below the west stand of the Olympic stadium to be accused of violating the Italian code of sporting justice by taking part in a vast match-fixing ring. All the defendants deny wrongdoing.

Under the rules of the Italian football federation those accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent.

Juventus could be stripped of at least one championship, up to three other Serie A sides are in danger of relegation, and the 26 individuals charged risk being suspended or expelled from the game.

Pivotal to the scandal are two Juventus executives, Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo, neither of whom attended the hearing. They are accused of arranging for compliant referees and linesmen to officiate at games involving Juventus and other clubs within their sphere of influence. The strings they allegedly pulled are claimed to have led to players being wrongly booked and penalties being unfairly awarded or withheld.

The trial was adjourned until Monday - throwing into some doubt the federation's pledge to complete proceedings before the World Cup final.