Juventus president Giovanni Gigli expressed his disappointment at the Italian court's decision to relegate the Italian champions to Serie B after being found guilty with sporting fraud. "It's unheard of, we were expecting a balanced sentence but evidently we were mistaken," Gigli was quoted as saying by Calcio Italia magazine on Saturday. The Turin club was involved in the match fixing scandal that hit Italian football and the court decided to strip them of the league titles they won in 2004 and 2005. Thirty points of Juventus tally next season will also be docked as a part of one of the harshest penalties sentences in the history of football. Gigli confirmed that Juventus will appeal the decision, but with lower division football on the horizon for the 'Old Lady', it's highly expected that most of the team stars are on their way out. "I've spoken with some of our champions, and I can concretely hope that few of them have the desire to stay. After all, we still pay their wages," he said. Former Juventus coach Fabio Capello, who recently signed for Real Madrid already declared his interest in luring a bunch of Juventus stars including Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta and Emerson.
Lazio "If Capello wants our players, he'll have to pay the market value for them, he left us in the most delicate of times and we won't give him any discounts," Gigli added. The Calciopoli verdict also included Serie B relegation and point-deduction for Lazio and Fiorentina, while giants AC Milan were deprived from UEFA Champions League football next season. "We weren't expecting this sentence, we never thought we were violating any moral code," Lazio president Claudio Lotito was received a three years suspension said. "However we'll do everything to defend our club even if we take it to European courts." Fiorentina honorary president Diego Della Valle, who was also suspended from football for four years, echoed Lotito's statements. "The sentence was profoundly unjust, and we're preparing an appeal to have facts rather than words to defend us," he said The Italian court gave all convicted teams a deadline to appeal the decision till July 18th.
