What do you think of this?
Harsh? Or fair enough?
Hard to say, probably fair enough. I think the biggest effect will be in the transfer market for the players on these teams (not so much AC Milan). Where will the Juventus elite players go? They will not fancy staying with a Serie B team that starts with a 30 point deficit. Buffon should be a hot commodity.
As harsh as could’ve been expected, given that corruption in Italian football is a given, and many people (especially Juve fans) are of the “but we were just the ones who got caught” attitude. Should’ve been much much harsher, but that was never going to happen.
I can’t help imagining what on earth the Premier League would have done had a similar scandal occurred in Britain. Probably the same end results, for very different social reasons.
And the big winners of the sale-of-the-century will be the Premiership, because they’ve got the money+reputation to dominate the bidding war.
The points deduction for Juventus probably means a 2 year stay in Serie B. If this was to stand- all the clubs have appealed against the verdict- then I can see a mass exit of star players, from Juve especially. However I wouldn’t be surprised if on appeal, the points reduction is reduced.
I think the punishment was deserved, to have powerful clubs like this indulging in corruption when they could probably have success without cheating, just stinks.
Some more backround infornation here:
The corruption in Italian football has been going on for decades, its bad enough when it is confined to Seria A, however I distincly remeber a match where Leeds Untied played Juventos in the European cup back in the 1970’s, the referee had been bribed, he was banned ever from being a match official again, however the beneficiaries went on to win the trophy and their name remains upon it.
If you imagine that this corruption was confined to Seria A, then I’m afraid that is extremely unlikely, my view is that these clubs should not be allowed in European competition for many years, and there will be a reasonable case to keep all Italian teams out of Euro competition as the Italian football federation has already been deeply implicated.