RATS AND SINKING SHIPS

Last updated : 05 July 2006 By Ed

Appears he's off to Real Madrid.

The Times:

Fabio Capello resigned as coach of Juventus today, only hours after a prosecutor at a match-fixing trial demanded that the Italian champions be relegated from Serie A to Serie C1

Capello, who is set to coach Real Madrid, was the first major name to jump from Italian clubs in a scandal that could see four clubs relegated from the top division. The 50-year-old joined the club in 2004 and took them to two straight league titles, the sixth and seventh of his coaching career.

Stefano Palazzi, the Italian football federation (FIGC) prosecutor, asked today for all four clubs being tried by a sports tribunal at the Olympic Stadium in Rome to be thrown out of Serie A, with Juventus punished the most severely.

On the third day of the trial, held behind closed doors, Signor Palazzi called for AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio to be relegated to Serie B and for Juventus to be relegated "below Serie B". He also urged judges to strip Juventus of the league titles they won during Capello's two seasons in charge.

Five leading members of the Italy squad — Fabio Cannavaro, the captain, Gianluca Zambrotta, Allesandro Del Piero, Mauro Camoranesi and Gianluigi Buffon, the goalkeeper — play for Juventus.

The trial, however, has become bogged down in technicalities as defence lawyers use delaying tactics. Gaetano Scalise, the lawyer representing Paolo Bergamo, a former FIGC official, argued today that his client was not liable to be tried by the tribunal because he had resigned from the federation.

Signor Bergamo, an FIGC official for 40 years, conducted the draw that assigned referees to Serie A matches. Signor Scalise also argued that intercepted telephone calls, which are at the heart of the inquiry, should not be admissible as evidence, and he assailed the "media circus" surrounding the trial.

Similar arguments have been advanced — unsuccessfully — on behalf of Luciano Moggi, the former Juventus general manager, who is the centre of the scandal and was the alleged linchpin of the match-rigging network. In addition to the four clubs, twenty-six officials face charges of sporting fraud and unfair conduct.