By Mark Baber
March 25 – The infamous ability of well-to-do Italian criminals to string out court cases until the statute of limitations kicks in was again revealed this week as the top Juventus officials involved in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal escaped prison.
Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi (pictured) avoided a 28 month prison sentence and Antonio Giraudo avoided a 20 month prison sentence as their crimes were adjudged outside the time-limits.
Former referee designator Pierluigi Pairetto and the former Italian football federation vice-president Innocenzo Mazzini also had their sentences eliminated, while the former referees Paolo Bertini and Antonio Dattilo were acquitted.
Former referee, Massimo De Santis, was the only one whose sentence remained in place with his appeal against a suspended sentence rejected.
Moggi and Giraudo were accused of being at the heart of the 2006 match-fixing scandal which led to Juventus being stripped of the 2004/5 and 2005/6 Serie A titles and the club being relegated to Serie B with a nine-point penalty. (AC Milan and Fiorentina received 8 and 15 point deductions respectively.)
Moggi was originally sentenced to five years, four months but managed to have that reduced on appeal, while Giraudo was originally sentenced to 36 months in jail.
In 2011, both men had five-year football bans extended to life terms by the Italian Football Federation.
Despite predictable attempts by Moggi to spin the verdict as implying there had been no scandal, and despite being cleared on two counts of sporting fraud, he was not acquitted on the criminal conspiracy count, although he escapes prison due to the statute of limitations.
Although Juventus have made moves to try and sue the Italian Football Federation for losses sustained in the affair, the fact the key convictions stand makes any compensation unlikely.
Attempts to reform the Italian judicial system to speed the process up and avoid those accused escaping justice have met various stumbling blocks, not least due to the numerous cases involving ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
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