Three of the four clubs implicated in the Italian match fixing scandal, Juventus, AC Milan and Lazio have presented their cases to the Olympic Committee's Court of arbitration on Wednesday. The hearing is the four clubs' final chance to appeal their match-fixing sentence within the Olympic Committee's courts, and Juventus, who received the biggest point deduction and was relegated to Serie B, remain optimistic. "We are hoping to get the same sentence as all the other teams," Juventus President Giovanni Cobolli Gigli was quoted as saying by Calcio Italia magazine on Wednesday. "I am confident that CONI – the Italian Olympic Committee – will treat us in the right way because we have paid a lot with the relegation into Serie B." "We expect a substantial reduction of our penalty," Gigli told reporters as he left the court. "Our lawyers have stated their case and their counterparts have had their say. We are confident." Juventus have already won their first appeal, alleviating their punishment from a 30 point penalty to a 17 point reduction.
Juve were relegated to Serie B While the club hopes to relieve more of the burden, Juventus chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc insists they will respect the end result. "We are serene ahead of the sentence," Blanc said. "We have a big handicap, having been demoted to Serie B and given a 17-point punishment, but just as we respected the previous sentence, we will also respect the next one." Though various media sources have remained insistent that the clubs will see a penalty reduction, all Blanc is hoping for is a fair sentence. "However, we do hope to have a fair sentence which will give the players the necessary condition to have a more acceptable challenge." The fourth club Fiorentina, who started their campaign with minus 19 points, are set to appeal to the court on Thursday. The final judgment should be handed down by the end of the month.
