Naples, Nov 8: Former Juventus executive Luciano Moggi and more than 20 other football officials were facing sentences Tuesday from a court in Naples over their alleged roles in the 2006 Italian match-fixing scandal.
The sentences have been scheduled for 8 p.m. (1900 GMT).
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five years and eight months for Moggi on charges of criminal association aimed at committing sports fraud.
Another former Juventus executive, Antonio Giraudo, already received a three-year sentence.
The scandal—the biggest corruption case in the history of Italian football—saw Juventus stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles and relegated to Serie B for a season by a sports court.
Three other top clubs—AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina—were also penalized, as were Reggina and Arezzo.
Moggi and Giraudo were banned from football for life by a sports court earlier this year for influencing the outcome of matches.
At the heart of the scandal were allegations that Moggi and Giraudo created a network of contacts with federation officials to influence refereeing assignments and arrange for key players in other teams to be booked ahead of matches with Juventus.
The 2006 title was reassigned to Inter Milan and Juventus is still appealing to get it back or have it unassigned like the 2005 title, arguing that newly released phone taps show Inter also attempted to pressure referees.
“Football was not a perfect world in which Moggi was the only imperfect one,” said Moggi's lawyer, Paolo Trofino, in his closing arguments, according to ANSA.
“He was chosen as the scapegoat on whom all the vileness of football could clean its conscience,” Trofino added. “For six long years, Moggi has put up with a media shackling and that's why we're not simply asking for an acquittal but a compensation sentence.”
Prosecutors were also seeking five years for former referee selector Paolo Bergamo and four years and six months for his colleague Pierluigi Pairetto, four years for former football federation vice president Innocenzo Mazzini, and three years for former referee Massimo De Santis.
Also implicated are Fiorentina owners Andrea and Diego Della Valle and Lazio president Claudio Lotito.
Moggi and the others deny wrongdoing.
